By
As Somalia struggled to hold its first real national elections since the country collapsed in 1991, the US and its allies pushed separatism and undermined democracy so as to militarily dominate the country and plunder its resources.
An armed conflict is underway between secessionists and unionists in the city of Lasanod, where Somaliland state separatist forces have fired on civilians, reportedly killing more than 82 people. Somali unionists have now taken up arms to defend themselves, and issued a declaration declaring that Lasanod should be administered from Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
In the interview that follows, Dr. Abidiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad places the recent fighting in the context of the much larger battle to rebuild the Somali nation and hold national elections since the state was fully destabilized in 1991. As Abdisamad explains, the West is waging a war of its own to keep Somalia weak and fragmented.
Somalia’s 2100-mile coastline is so resource rich and strategically significant that a truly sovereign Somalia is anathema to the US and its Western allies. That’s why the US has filled the country with its troops, attacked it with drone bombs, imposed a Greenzone in its capital, overseen a failed UN “peacekeeping” operation, backed a puppet government to rule it, and organized the AFRICOM military alliance and an EU Navy patrol along Somalia’s coast.
Continue reading at thegrayzone.com
US Launches Another Airstrike in Somalia, Claims 5 al-Shabaab Killed
Feb 16, 2023
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced it launched an airstrike in Somalia against al-Shabaab on Wednesday, the second known US airstrike in the country this month.
In a press release on Thursday, AFRICOM claimed the strike killed five al-Shabaab fighters and said it “assessed” no civilians were killed due to the remote location of the strike. But the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties in Somalia, and there’s never any confirmation of AFRICOM’s claims when it comes to its operations in the country.
AFRICOM said the strike was carried out near Bacadweyne, a Somali town about 285 miles northeast of the capital Mogadishu. The command said the strike was launched at the request of the US-backed Mogadishu-based government, which has been engaged in heavy fighting against al-Shabaab since launching an offensive last year.
US airstrikes have increased in Somalia since President Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops to the country last May. In 2022, there were 15 airstrikes reported by AFRICOM, up from 11 in 2021.
Continue reading atnews.antiwar.com
We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.
