I'm John Basker with the very generous Caleb Wise reporting for Bridgeway Foundation and

he's a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy's keeping the Long War Journal.

A report that Caleb filed at the end of 2023 is certainly relevant for what we're speaking

of in Somalia is Africa making

drone strikes in Somalia. In general, I've lost track of Afrika's mission in

Somalia except generally to say it supports the government, but the news

that the African Union was withdrawing or intends to withdraw, but the whole question of Somalia surviving in front and center.

Caleb, I want to speak generally right now.

What is Afrika's mission that it says its mission in Somalia,

airstrikes against what appears to be total chaos.

So, normally the mission is exactly what you said is to support the federal government of

Somalia and Mogadishu and try to prop it up in the face of you know a significant jihadi threat from al-Shabaab.

But what that looks like is essentially sporadic drone strikes.

Now there are a few hundred American Special Forces on the ground in Somalia, but they're pretty limited in what they can and can't do.

For the most part, they are training or what's called, you know, remote advise and assist.

That is that train Somali partners or train J-Tax,

these people who call on airstrikes will put in an air strike request through the special forces

and then that will go up to the chain of command. And that's essentially what it looks like.

It's very woof, you know, footprint. That's what these look that the new US wants. And I don't see that changing even as you mentioned in the face of the African Union withdrawing and they're continuing to withdraw and then within the next few months they plan to withdraw I think 3,000 war troops and then by December they're supposed to be completely out of Somalia,

which at the height of the African Union, you know, contribution to Somalia,

there's 18,000 troops, and those 18,000 troops absolutely acted as, you know, a defensive barrier for Mogadishu. You know, once the Ugandans pushed Al-Shaba out of Mogadishu in 2011. and being a chabad, you know, large offensive against Mogadishu.

Obviously, attacks still happen in Mogadishu, but they can no longer go in and

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