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Somalia

Power Shift In The Horn Of Africa: Somalia Recognizes SSC-Khaatumo

April 28, 2025 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
The geopolitical dynamics of the Horn of Africa region are always volatile, but more so now than ever. The world’s attention is most drawn to the region by Ansar Allah’s disruption of crucial maritime routes in the Red Sea in support of Palestine and Donald Trump’s despicable proposal to remove and dump the entire population of Gaza in war-torn Sudan, Somalia, and/or Somaliland, the unrecognized Somali secessionist state. Both the US and Israel have considered recognizing secessionist Somaliland as a state in order to turn it into a US/Israeli military enclave on the Gulf of Aden, near the mouth of the Red Sea and just across from Houthi-controlled Yemen.

US War On Africa Rages On With Somalia In The Crosshairs

February 17, 2025 The Black Alliance for Peace. , , , , , ,
The new Trump administration has wasted no time continuing the U.S. war on Africa. Just one month into his second term, the U.S. has launched at least six airstrikes in Somalia’s Puntland region. While AFRICOM and the Somali government claim these strikes are “authorized” and therefore legal under international law, this so-called authorization is nothing more than a hallmark of neo-colonial governance. Comprador regimes installed and maintained by Western imperialism do not exercise genuine sovereignty but instead serve as facilitators of foreign domination.

How The United States Destabilized The Horn Of Africa

October 7, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
The Horn of Africa and its key waterways are the geostrategic interface between Europe, Africa, and Asia. They have been the site of more destructive foreign intervention and global power competition than any other region on the continent. It seemed as though consequent strife and instability might be coming to an end in 2018, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, and then Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmaajo, signed the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Between Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea , promising that the three countries would work together to promote regional peace and security.

Ansar Allah Are Not Working with Al-Shabaab

June 28, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
On October 19, 2023, Yemen’s Ansar Allah began launching missiles and armed drones at Israel, demanding an end to its war and blockade on the Gaza Strip. More significantly, they began seizing and launching aerial attacks against dozens of merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that were carrying cargo to and from Israel. In Arabic, Ansar Allah means “Supporters of God.” It is a Shia Islamist political and military nationalist organization that emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. The group is commonly but disrespectfully referred to as “the Houthis,” a term which has a derogatory tribalist connotation.

U.S. AFRICOM Airstrikes Feared To Have Killed Two Cuban Doctors

February 28, 2024 Netfa Freeman, The Black Alliance for Peace. , , , ,
The National Network on Cuba, The Black Alliance for Peace, and Lowcountry Action Committee strongly condemn the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) airstrikes in Somalia reported to have killed 2 Cuban doctors. We demand the U.S. release all information about the bombing to Cuba and the victims’ families. Cuba has deployed more than 600,000 health workers to 165 nations over the last six decades on medical missions. Two Cubans serving in Kenya, Dr. Assel Herrera Correa, a specialist in general medicine, and Dr. Landy Rodriguez Hernandez, a surgeon, were kidnapped there in 2019 and held in Jilib, southern Somalia.

Red Sea Politics: Ethiopia, Somalia, And The US/EU/NATO

January 18, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
The world’s eyes are now on the geostrategic Red Sea waterways where Yemen’s Ansar Allah fighters have stopped Israeli and Israel-bound ships from passing. Other regional tensions have come into play since Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Somaliland, a secessionist state within Somalia that has claimed its independence since 1991. Given the geostrategic importance of the Red Sea, the US/EU/NATO are no doubt involved behind the scenes. I spoke to Somali Kenyan scholar Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad about Red Sea politics and the MOU.

Biden’s Troop Deployment To Somalia Confirms Africa Is Not Free

May 26, 2022 Black Alliance For Peace, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
The Biden Administration's recent decision to return  U.S. troops to Somalia represents another effort on the part of the U.S. to deny agency and independence to African people. On the 59th commemoration of African Liberation Day, the Black Alliance for Peace expresses its unequivocal opposition to this redeployment. The 500 U.S. troops sent to Somalia are the latest to violate that nation’s sovereignty. As is the case with all U.S. interventions, the underlying reasons are not only depraved but also indifferent to the constant suffering of African people caused by western-induced militarism and war. The reintroduction of the U.S. military (AFRICOM ) on the ground is related to a dispute between Somalia and the U.S. oil company, Coastline Exploration Ltd, over the validity of an oil exploration agreement.

Biden Redeploys Troops To Somalia While Humanitarian Crisis Looms

May 20, 2022 Abayomi Azikiwe, Popular Resistance. , , ,
President Joe Biden of the United States has announced through the Department of Defense the redeployment of Pentagon troops to the Horn of Africa state of Somalia.  This is not the first time that U.S. troops have been sent into Somalia due to the strategic geopolitical significance of the country as an oil producer and oceanic gateway to critical trade routes within the world economic system. The redeployment in Somalia coincides with the escalation of a Washington-engineered war in Eastern Europe over the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and efforts designed to weaken the Russian Federation. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a surprise visit to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on April 25, emphasized the objectives of Washington and Wall Street in the funding of a conventional war in the region. 

Media Ignore Conflicts Around The World To Focus On Ukraine

March 4, 2022 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. , , , , , ,
Kiev, Ukraine - We are living in dangerous times. All around the world, intense military actions are taking place. Last week alone, Russia launched a huge military invasion of Ukraine; Saudi Arabia carried out dozens of strikes on Yemen; Israel launched a wave of deadly missile attacks against Syria; and the United States restarted its bombing campaign in Somalia. These four deadly incidents happened concurrently. Yet judging by media coverage, it is highly unlikely that many will even be aware of the final three. A MintPress News study of five leading Western media outlets found that overwhelming attention was paid to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the others were barely mentioned, if at all.

In Somalia, The US Is Bombing The Very ‘Terrorists’ It Created

August 15, 2021 TJ Coles, The Grayzone. , , ,
This July, the Biden administration picked up where Trump left off and began bombing Somalia, a country with a gross domestic product of less than $6 billion and a poverty rate of 70 percent. But why? The official reason provided by the Pentagon was that the Somali National Army needed air support in its operations to counter al-Shabaab. But the actual reason was that Somalia is geo-strategically important to US empire. Successive US administrations have cycled through a myriad of excuses to either bomb the country or to arm its dictators: Cold War politics, “humanitarian intervention,” anti-piracy, and more recently counterterrorism. As we shall see, in the mid-2000s, a fragile coalition of soft and hard Islamists – explicitly not allied to al-Qaeda at the time – brought some measure of peace to the areas of Somalia it controlled.

Biden Administration Escalates Airstrikes In Somalia

August 5, 2021 Dave DeCamp, AntiWar.Com. , , ,
The Biden administration is escalating airstrikes in Somalia after a long pause in the US drone war against al-Shabaab. The US bombed Somalia on Sunday, the third time in less than two weeks and the third official airstrike in the country of Biden’s presidency. US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a press release that the airstrike was conducted near Qeycad, Somalia, on August 1st. The US-backed Somali government said the airstrike “destroyed a large al-Shabaab firing position” that was engaged with members of Danab, a Somali commando force trained by the US. The press release said AFRICOM’s “initial” assessment found “no civilians were injured or killed given the remote nature of where this engagement occurred.”

What On Earth Is The US Doing Bombing Somalia?

May 15, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The Trump administration has quietly ramped up a vicious bombing—and covert raiding—campaign in Somalia amid a global coronavirus pandemic. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided any explanation for the deadly escalation of a war that Congress hasn’t declared and the media rarely reports. At stake are many thousands of lives. The public statistics show a considerable increase in airstrikes from Obama’s presidency. From 2009 to 2016, the U.S. military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced 36 airstrikes in Somalia. Under Trump, it conducted at least 63 bombing raids just last year, with another 39 such attacks in the first four months of 2020. The ostensible U.S. target has usually been the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, but often the real—or at least consequent—victims are long-embattled Somali civilians.

Empire Files: US Empire Exploits #COVID19 For More War

April 9, 2020 AbMartin and Mike Prysner, Empire Files. , , ,
"We're in the midst of a global pandemic. Billions of people around the world are worrying about how they are going to survive it physically and economically. The US Empire sees it as a perfect opportunity to advance. This new reality exposes the great contradictions of the current world order. So-called enemies of the US, Cuba and China, are exporting hundreds of doctors and medical supplies while the capitalist icon, the United States, doles out death abroad and trails the world in caring for its own people. First claiming COVID19 was being used as a Democratic Party hoax, now Trump boasts it would be a great success if only 200,000 Americans die. Most Americans who don't know how they are going to pay rent can clearly see the $2.2 trillion bailout prioritized corporations and billionaires, handing out billions of dollars for candy dynasties and cruise liners.

Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar Backs BDS Amid Facing Anti-Semitism Smear Campaign

November 16, 2018 Staff, Alaraby.co.uk , , ,
Longtime supporter of Palestine Ilhan Omar has taken her passion to Congress and backed the BDS movement. The first Somali-American congresswoman Ilhan Omar has backed the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement after a large attempt to smear her as an anti-Semite for her Palestine activism. “Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalised. She does however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution,” her office told Muslim Girl on Sunday. This comes after months of being attacked online for her support for Palestine, with many trying to smear her as an anti-Semite.

Trump Continues Drone Attacks, Facilitates Civilian Deaths

June 11, 2018 Staff, Drone Warfare. , , ,
The NGO CAGE, which campaigns against discriminatory state policies and advocates observance of due process and the rule of law, reminds readers that in October 2017, US President Donald Trump replaced the Obama rules pertaining to drone strikes with his own ‘rules’ called the “Principles, Standards, and Procedures,” or PSPs. It reports that according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) these laws “make it easier to kill more people in more places outside recognized battlefields, posing grave risks of death and injury to civilians”
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