Speaker
Mohamed Gabobe
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1 episodes
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1
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The US has carried out 196 airstrikes in Somalia since Trump's second administration began, approaching his entire first-term total of 219.
A US airstrike on the al-Shabaab-controlled farming town of Jimaale in southern Somalia killed 12 civilians, including 8 children.
The United States has at least 500 soldiers currently stationed in Somalia, in addition to drone surveillance and airstrike capabilities.
A Somali mother whose child was wounded in a US airstrike said she cannot afford the $1,000 surgery needed to remove shrapnel that threatens her son's ability to walk.
Al-Shabaab has created a parallel government and de facto state within Somalia's borders, maintaining a monopoly on force in the areas it controls.
The US has been carrying out airstrikes in Somalia for two decades, yet al-Shabaab remains powerful and may even be strengthening.
The US has conducted 196 airstrikes in Somalia since Trump's second term began, nearly matching his entire first-term total of 219. Two decades of continuous bombing have failed to defeat al-Shabaab, which now runs a parallel government inside Somalia's borders.
At Quantico, Trump said US politicians had wrongly convinced themselves 'our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia.' While he said it, the US was doing exactly that. The Somalia campaign is the forever war Trump promised to end.
Two decades of US strikes haven't broken al-Shabaab — and may be fueling its growth. Every bomb that falls drives young Somalis toward the insurgency. Al-Shabaab today runs a parallel government and controls vast territory it didn't hold a decade ago.
After ISIS lost its territorial control in Syria and Iraq, its global leadership shifted to Somalia. Senior US officials now believe the global caliph — the head of ISIS — is physically located in Somalia, making it a top-tier US national security concern.
The World Food Programme warns Somalia is on the verge of famine — a crisis deepened by US USAID cuts and rising food and fuel prices from the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Armed groups like al-Shabaab weaponize food insecurity for recruitment.
The US has trained and funded a Somali special forces unit called the Danab, or Lightning Force. US troops provide surveillance drones and airstrike support to these Somali units, operating in a partnership that goes far deeper than the public debate acknowledges.
Decades of foreign interventions, international resolutions, and outside funding have not stabilized Somalia — they've entrenched dependency and undermined local governance. Most Somalis just want self-determination, not outside rescuers.
Trump publicly calls Somalia 'the worst country on Earth' and vilifies Somali immigrants — while his military quietly escalates airstrikes there. Josh Keating argues the two aren't directly linked, but the context is impossible to ignore.
The US Somalia campaign doesn't require active political decisions to continue — it just keeps going unless someone stops it. When Biden added oversight rules, strikes fell. When Trump removed them, they surged. No one in Washington is debating this.
Biden required White House sign-off for every counterterrorism strike in Somalia. Trump scrapped those rules entirely, handing AFRICOM the authority to launch strikes at will. The result has been more strikes in one year than Biden authorized in four.
Under Trump's second term, low-level military commanders have been given authority to launch strikes without White House approval. The result: a farming town in southern Somalia was hit, killing 12 civilians including 8 children.
The US is conducting its most active air campaign in Somalia ever, yet it barely registers in public debate. No US troops in harm's way means no political pressure to explain the mission. The military has learned that casualty-free wars stay invisible.
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