SNA (New York) — Largely outside of the public view, the United States has been prosecuting an intermittent, fifteen-year-long bombing campaign in Somalia which has killed an estimated 2,000-3,000 people, including dozens of noncombatants. US actions could be considered tantamount to a secret war about which most people are unaware.

The primary US opponent in this undeclared war in the Horn of Africa is Al-Shabab, an insurgent group fighting in the ongoing Somalia civil war, a conflict which is estimated to have claimed the lives of around 500,000 people and displaced over a million, not counting those communities which it has made more vulnerable to starvation.

Al-Shabab is a militant organization which rose to prominence in 2007. It aims to create an Islamic state in East Africa, although it also expresses a heavy dose of Somali nationalism.

In 2008, the US government listed Al-Shabab as a “terrorist organization,” and since that time these Somali fighters have not been regarded as what they obviously are–local African clan warriors–but rather as constituents in a “Global War on Terrorism” who are somehow seen as a mortal threat to Western societies. In the parlance of the US-led “international community,” they are simply designated as “terrorists.”

The US military has been given standing authority to target these “terrorists” as a threat to “us, and our interests, and our allies.”

And targeted they have been. Last month, it was reported that thirteen Al-Shabab fighters had been killed in a US airstrike. The US military’s African command, AFRICOM, explained its action by noting that “US forces are authorized to conduct strikes in defense of designated partner forces.”

This kind of vague bureaucratic language has all along attended the US military deployment in the Horn of Africa. It reflects a lack of transparency which has allowed the US troops and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)–also engaged in Somalia–a relatively open-ended mission timeline with flexible and evolving goals.

Though the long decade and a half, the US government has waged a violent campaign in Somalia without serious scrutiny from either the mainstream media or other independent observers.

This blindspot in public perception is particularly disturbing in light of recent research by UK-based nonprofit Airwars, an organization set up to track international bombings and missile attacks.

Airwars credibly alleges that the US government dramatically underreported civilian casualties. AFRICOM admits to only five civilian deaths across the entire fifteen-year period, but Airwars estimates that the true number could be anywhere between 78-153 civilian deaths, including up to 23 children.

AFRICOM publicly announces its airstrikes, but it remains tight-lipped about ground attacks, which also appear to be occurring. In particular, CIA activities remain highly secretive, covered by a “neither confirm nor deny” policy.

In addition, Airwars estimates that the US government has launched at least 61 drone strikes in  Somalia since 2019 which have not been publicly acknowledged.

Former US President Donald Trump, in the last months of his tenure, withdrew some troops from the country, angering leadership in the Pentagon.

But, this May, US President Joe Biden redeployed these forces back into Somalia–again with very little scrutiny from the mainstream media.

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