The Somalia resistance group Al-Shabaab issued a statement on Sept. 4 claiming responsibility for an attack on U.S. military forces in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel in the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza. The U.S. forces were at a base located near Kismayo Airport in southern Somalia. 

Blogger Muhammad Od reported in a You Tube video on Sept. 5: “According to a statement by the movement, quoted in the local Baidoa Online website, the operation targeted the ‘American camp’ in response to the war in Gaza, and resulted in ‘heavy losses among U.S. soldiers and the destruction of military vehicles.’”  

Od noted that in its X account, AFRICOM acknowledged the attack but claimed it was “indirect” with no serious damage. However, social media images showed the damage on the base and a Middle East Media Research Institute report found it credible. 

The U.S. AFRICOM base is used to coordinate joint air operations against resistance forces in the Jubaland region of Somalia. Over the years, Al-Shabaab has conducted multiple assaults on U.S. military positions in Somalia, using both indirect fire and ground assaults. In 2020, Al-Shabaab attacked a joint U.S.-Kenyan military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, in which three U.S. troops were killed and a number of aircraft destroyed. 

By 2021, the U.S. military operated around 29 bases across the African continent, including several in Somalia and neighboring countries. But increasing resistance to U.S. imperialism, especially in the West African Sahel region, and anti-imperialist stances by the governments of African states like Niger, has forced a reduction in the number of these bases.    

Long history of resistance to U.S. imperialism 

Al-Shabaab has been fighting against the Somali government and U.S. military in the region since 2008. In September 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. had carried out a targeted assassination of the leader of the resistance movement. 

Al-Shabaab quickly retaliated in attacks against two convoys of African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) troops, funded, trained and coordinated by the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and European Union. The AMISOM forces, numbering 22,000, were operating alongside U.S. military intelligence personnel. These attacks on AMISOM and U.S. military personnel never made Western corporate media news.  

All of the states throughout the Horn of Africa and East Africa contain oil, natural gas and other resources long subject to exploitation by the U.S. and other Western imperialists. They have largely maintained the persistent conflict in the region that has made it difficult for the African countries there to achieve the peace necessary for security and economic development. 

Threatened forced relocation of Gazans to East Africa 

In recent months, both President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have promoted the barbaric idea of forcibly relocating 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to Somaliland, the small East African coastal region of Somalia. While the territory declared independence from Somalia in 1991, it has not been recognized by the Somali government, nor any other world government. 

In June, several U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Republicans endorsed a bill cited as the “Republic of Somaliland Independence Act” to authorize Trump “to recognize the Somaliland of the Federal Republic of Somalia as a separate, independent country.” 

This obvious trade-off of recognition for Somaliland “independence” in exchange for their acquiescence to accept the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza has encountered opposition in Somaliland. 

On Aug. 21, Middle East Eye reported: “‘Somaliland’s constitution explicitly states that it respects international law,’ said Guleid Ahmed Jama, a human rights advocate in Hargeisa. ‘Any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would not only violate that commitment but could also render Somaliland complicit in the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.’” 

When Israel began its genocidal war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Flood, Al-Shabaab held protests in rebel-controlled areas of Somalia which drew large crowds in support of Palestine. Any attempt to carry out Trump and Netanyahu’s planned forced relocation is certain to meet with widespread opposition.