Up to 120 US military personnel are operating out of two secret drone bases in Somalia, carrying out attacks on Al-Shabab militants and working with African Union peacekeepers, a new report has revealed.| But don't tell anyone because it's a secret... |
Regional administration official Abdighani Abdi Jama told McCormick that as many as 40 US personnel conduct “intelligence” and “counterterrorism” operations and operate drones from their base at Kismayo airport, about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. Somali officials and sources within the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) also indicated a similar presence at Baledogle, in the Lower Shebelle region.
Washington has not officially admitted to operating drones from Somali territory,
| ...finally, someone with some sense at Foggy Bottom... |
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesman Chuck Prichard declined to comment on the size or location of their units, saying only that the “small number” of US Special Forces deployed the region was “not tasked with directly engaging enemy forces.”
“The exact nature of this support, weapons systems or number of personnel involved in these operations cannot be disclosed in order to protect the integrity of these operations and the safety of units in the region,” Prichard wrote in an email to Foreign Policy.
US forces have conducted drone and helicopter attacks against Al-Shabab since 2007. An American drone killed the group’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in 2014.
On more than one occasion, US special operations teams have staged their attacks from bases belonging to Kenyan and Ugandan forces within AMISOM says McCormick, citing anonymous sources from within the peacekeeping mission.
“They come to our forward operating bases and sometimes do joint operations with us,” said one Ugandan source. “We often don’t get much notice,” he added. “They don’t trust us, and we don’t trust them.”
Given the history and terrain, a very constructive arrangement ek se.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, up to 105 people may have been killed in US drone strikes in Somalia, of which there have been no more than 13 since 2007. Most of them were not civilians. Other covert operations killed between 40 and 141 people, with civilians making seven to 47 of them.
| So we're whacking bad guys, trying to spare civilians, and not talking about it. Sounds like someone is doing their job well... |
Not a topic of discussion among gentlemen or the diplomatic crowd, but the funding of contractors from other regions of the continent has played a significant role as well.
According to Bronwyn Bruton, from the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center,
| ...and a professional hand-wringer... |