Stop US Drone Attacks on Somalia!
Stop US Drone Attacks on Somalia!
July 7, 2022
Nearly a quarter of a million people are facing starvation in Somalia, but the Biden administration is making matters worse by focusing on escalating US warfare in that country. In February, Biden resumed drone strikes on Somalia. While President Trump withdrew most of the 700 American troops he had deployed to Somalia, Biden announced in May that around 500 US troops will be going back to Somalia, and additionally that the US plans to increase drone strikes.
In 1992, President Bush sent 28,000 US troops to Somalia, supposedly to distribute food during a devastating famine. Unsurprisingly, US troops became violently involved in Somalia’s political conflict, and the US intervention lasted for 15 months. In 1993, the US led a raid on Mogadishu that killed hundreds of Somalis,18 Americans and two UN soldiers, causing the political conflict to escalate and continue for decades. Then, after 9/11, the US began implementing airstrikes. 268 airstrikes have been carried out to date, which have killed around 2,000 people in Somalia. Trump led an unprecedented escalation of the US war in Somalia during his administration, and we are worried that Biden is continuing this trajectory.
The atrocities committed in Somalia are underreported. Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, reports, “The evidence is stacking up and it’s pretty damning. Not only does AFRICOM [US Africa Command] utterly fail at its mission to report civilian casualties in Somalia, but it doesn’t seem to care about the fate of the numerous families it has completely torn apart.”
US airstrikes and US-supplied weapons have killed civilians and increased instability in the region and across the globe. The US military perpetuates conflict in Somalia by labeling the civilian victims of US drone strikes as ‘terrorists.’ US drone strikes kill innocent people around the globe, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. As reported by The Intercept, during one 5-month period in Afghanistan, nearly 90% of those killed by US drone strikes were NOT the intended target. Drone warfare causes significant destruction by killing non-combatants (including American citizens) and by destroying infrastructure vital to these countries like hospitals, schools, mosques, and bridges.
Muchena continued, “We’ve documented case after case in the USA’s escalating air war on Somalia, where the AFRICOM thinks it can simply smear its civilian victims as ‘terrorists,’ no questions asked. This is unconscionable; the US military must change course and pursue truth and accountability in these cases, in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law (the laws of war).”
The Anti-War Committee calls for an end to all US drone strikes and doesn’t support US military intervention under the guise of humanitarian intervention. Drone attacks violate sovereignty, the rule of law, and international law.