US Africa Command told Antiwar.com in an email on Tuesday that its forces have launched 57 airstrikes in Somalia this year, as the Trump administration has been conducting strikes in the country at a record pace, an air war that gains virtually no media coverage in the US.
The Trump administration is well on its way to breaking the annual record for airstrikes in Somalia, which President Trump set at 63 in 2019.
The statement from AFRICOM was a response to an inquiry about its latest airstrikes, which were launched from August 1 to August 8 to support US-backed Somali government forces and Ugandan troops fighting under the African Union’s mission in Somalia, known as AUSSOM, against al-Shabaab to retake the town of Bariire, which is about 30 miles west of Mogadishu.
In its initial press release, AFRICOM didn’t specify how many strikes it launched. But in response to the inquiry from Antiwar.com, the command said that it launched a total of five airstrikes during the week-long battle. Somalia’s defense minister said about 120 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the operation.
The US has ramped up airstrikes in support of the Mogadishu-based government, which has lost significant territory to al-Shabaab this year. The US is also conducting a separate air war in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region against the local ISIS affiliate, which is an offshoot of al-Shabaab.
In Puntland, the US is backing local forces, who are fighting against ISIS and have also been at odds with the US-backed Federal Government. Last month, fighting between Puntland’s security forces and clan militias that Puntland authorities accused of being backed by the government left eight people dead.
The US-backed government has also been sporadically clashing with local Jubaland forces in southern Somalia. Both Puntland and Jubaland severed ties with the government last year over changes to the constitution made by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Mohamud has also been losing the support of clans he previously relied on to fight al-Shabaab, likely over his plans to hold Somalia’s first “one man, one vote” election in decades, a break from the country’s current system, under which clan elders and delegates choose lawmakers.
Residents of Mogadishu fear that al-Shabaab could launch an offensive on the city, and the Trump administration discussed the possibility of the city falling earlier this year. In April, The New York Times reported that State Department officials suggested the US should evacuate its embassy in Mogadishu, while other officials argued for the US to double down on its policy of propping up the government and increase airstrikes.
