U.S. FUNDED SOMALIA’S AL-SHABAAB TERRORISTS

Talk of US involvement in Somalia, and the first images that come to mind are drones, firefights, bombs, death and destruction. ‘Black Hawk Down,’ anyone?

Yet, recent reports suggest that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been channelling millions of dollars to the Somali extremist group, Al-Shabaab. 

During a US House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee hearing on 26 February, Gregg Roman, executive director of Middle East Forum, disclosed that Al-Shabaab is one of many terrorist groups benefiting from US foreign aid.

The US has a long history with Somalia that dates back to funding the government of President Mohammed Siad Barre, who ruled the country between 1969 and 1991.
The US began bombing Somalia in the early 1990s following a Somali coalition ousting Barre. Since 2001, every US administration—Democrat and Republican—has continued that bombing campaign.

Continued……. The US has justified military interventions for counterterrorism, anti-piracy efforts and humanitarian aid, yet they mask a cynical interest in the region’s strategic value. Somalia boasts Africa’s longest coastline—3,025 kilometres—and lies at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, where many countries have based their military operations to protect trade.
During the Biden administration, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) collaborated with elements of the US-backed government in Mogadishu to carry out airstrikes on suspected Al-Shabaab positions, often resulting in civilian casualties.

In 2023 alone, the US k*lled 120 Somali civilians during 18 airstrikes and one ground operation.

Video credit: @GOPoversight (X)

Sources


https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-america-first-foreign-aid-protects-u-s-interests-at-home-and-abroad/

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/13/in-somalia-the-us-is-bombing-the-very-terrorists-it-created/

https://theconversation.com/in-afghanistan-families-are-forced-to-sell-children-to-survive-trumps-usaid-cuts-will-be-devastating-249713

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/usaid-sending-40-million-per-week-to-taliban-witness-drops-bombshell-at-congress-hearing/videoshow/118607686.cms?from=mdr

https://www.voanews.com/a/how-pause-in-us-foreign-aid-is-impacting-south-central-asia/7971248.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/united-nations-cash-afghanistan-following-taliban-takeover

https://so.usembassy.gov/usaids-new-40-million-people-centered-governance-activity/

https://www.newamerica.org/future-security/blog/how-many-people-does-the-us-assess-it-killed-in-somalia-in-2023

The UN has issued a warning about the worsening famine conditions in Sudan as the country’s war - fuelled by foreign intervention - rages on. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk says there is a growing risk of deaths due to starvation, which will only aggravate Sudan’s already dire humanitarian crisis.

Two major aid organisations recently halted operations in North Darfur’s massive ZamZam refugee camp - reportedly home to half a million people - amid intense fighting in the region, including attacks on the camp itself by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary. The World Food Programme temporarily halted the distribution of food, while Doctors Without Borders says humanitarian efforts have become too difficult for the medical charity.

Famine conditions have already been reported in at least five locations across Sudan, including other displacement camps. Currently, more than 24.6-million people are facing acute hunger.

Continued……Since April 2023, the Sudanese army and the UAE-backed RSF have been engaged in a proxy war that has caused tens of thousands of deaths - with some fearing the death toll has long exceeded 150,000.

More than 11-million people have been displaced, both internally and abroad, according to the UN and local authorities.

Sources

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250226-un-official-warns-of-worsening-famine-in-sudan-as-violence-escalates/


https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-rights-chief-warns-mass-deaths-famine-sudan-2025-02-27/?taid=67c0850bf404f800018fbcb4&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter


https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-halts-food-help-sudan-camp-warns-thousands-could-starve-2025-02-26/

THE U.S. ALWAYS SUPPORTED APARTHEID

US support for apartheid and settler-colonialism in South Africa goes as far back as its ‘constructive engagement’ policy that aimed to break South Africa’s international isolation and use the apartheid regime as a proxy against socialist independence movements in Africa. 

Plus, African Stream’s Wambura Mwai (@wamburabrenda on IG) tells us that US corporations invested in upholding the apartheid regime with as much as $14.6 billion by the early 1980s, despite international boycotts, according to the US Out of Southern Africa Network. The US strategy bolstered the apartheid regime’s ability to suppress domestic and regional liberation movements. US President Donald Trump’s support for white landowners in South Africa continues this longstanding US legacy of backing apartheid-era policies. 

Let us know in the comments what you think about this phenomenon.

Continued……Sources

https://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/ronald_reagan_apartheid_south_africa

https://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/ronald_reagan_apartheid_south_africa

https://liberationnews.org/how-a-cornered-apartheid-south-africa-became-more-violent-as-it-neared-its-demise

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/25/angolan-ties-cubans-exit-to-namibian-peace/45a59d99-58d8-4b3f-804c-38ad08b8c661

https://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/south_africa/un-arms-embargo-on-south-africa

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229108535234

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36296551

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110080-8.pdf

https://africanactivist.msu.edu/recordFiles/210-849-20409/DGUSOSANUSCorps.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/04/archives/the-american-corporate-presence-in-south-africa-the-american.html

https://www.trtworld.com/africa/all-you-need-to-know-about-south-africas-land-expropriation-law-18263403

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/9/no-thanks-white-south-africans-turn-down-trumps-us-immigration-offer#:~:text=White%20people%20represent%207.2%20percent,down%20how%20many%20are%20Afrikaners.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/09/white-south-africans-us-00203271

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/africa/south-africa-land-aid-freeze-trump-intl/index.html

https://www.context.news/money-power-people/the-south-african-land-law-that-has-enraged-trump

https://www.reuters.com/world/stark-divide-that-south-africas-land-act-seeks-bridge-2025-02-09

https://africanactivist.msu.edu/recordFiles/210-849-20409/DGUSOSANUSCorps.pdf

UK PARLIAMENT HOSTS GENOCIDAL MILITIA

The UK has been accused of legitimising perpetrators of genocide - by allowing its parliament to host an event attended by people reportedly linked to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudanese paramilitary has been sanctioned by the US for a string of atrocities.

As our video explores, it’s not the first time London’s faced such accusations - and Britain is implicated further by its efforts to diplomatically shield the RSF’s main arms supplier: the United Arab Emirates.

Sources

https://x.com/TurtleYusuf/status/1894795384255348999

https://ceftus.org/pathways-to-peace-ending-conflicts-in-sudan/

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2772

Continued……https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-guardian-australia/20240416/281827173807060

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-accused-suppress-criticism-uae-role-sudan-war
https://sudantribune.com/article285064/

https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/us-senate-foreign-relations-committee-hearing-on-sudan-may-2024

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/15/military-massacres-in-sudans-breadbasket-are-fueling-an-unprecedented-famine/

https://dtm.iom.int/reports/dtm-sudan-mobility-update-14

WEST NOT BYSTANDERS IN DRC

Recent protests in Kinshasa have targeted Western embassies, including those of France and the US, as demonstrators accuse these foreign powers of complicity in the three-decade-long minerals conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that counts as the deadliest since World War II, according to many sources including US-based and UN-associated NGO World Without Genocide.

While Western governments have issued mild condemnations of Rwanda’s involvement, including token sanctions that leave senior Rwandan leadership untouched, their corporations continue to benefit from the DRC’s mineral wealth.

As NGO Focus Congo’s Pappy Orion (@pappyorion of @focuscongo/@focuscongo_drc) puts it, the European Union’s financial support for Rwanda, extending as far as funding Rwandan troops in Mozambique, where French oil giant TotalEnergies has a $20 billion investment, suggests deeper strategic motives.

Continued……He also argued that with China and Russia increasing their presence in Africa, Western powers are prolonging the conflict under the guise of later stepping in as peacemakers.

The DRC has seen little peace since Europeans carved up Africa and handed it to Belgian King Leopold II, who killed as many as 15 million people and enslaved our people to produce rubber. A glimmer of hope at independence was whiffed out with the assassination of Pan-African icon Patrice Lumumba (1925-61) at the hands of Belgian-, UK- and US-backed Congolese forces. The fall of the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), provided no reprieve, as the minerals conflict k*lled more than 6 million people by 2010 and internally displaced over 7 million.

Sources
https://x.com/LarryMadowo/status/1884219097887695006

Leopold in Congo
https://x.com/LarryMadowo/status/1884219097887695006

Western firms profiting off blood minerals
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-dismisses-child-labor-case-against-tech-companies-2024-03-05/

Total Rwanda deal
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/07/11/after-the-success-of-its-army-in-mozambique-rwanda-expects-economic-rewards_6049404_4.html

CIA Lumumba
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/17/patrice-lumumba-congo-washington-00121755

DRC killed and displaced since Rwanda genocide
https://africacenter.org/spotlight/drc-conflict-new-phase

Deadliest conflict
https://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/congo

6 million dead as of 2010
https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

700,000 flee since January 2025
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160486

Rwanda in Mozambique
https://ieefa.org/resources/list-reasons-not-finance-totalenergies-mozambique-lng-project-grows

Displacements
https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/iom-democratic-republic-congo-internal-displacement-overview-september-2024 (click on PDF)

US on Rwanda
https://www.state.gov/sanctioning-drivers-of-violence-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo

EU Parliament on Rwanda
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20250206IPR26752/meps-want-to-suspend-eu-rwanda-deal-on-critical-raw-materials

UK on Rwanda
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/uk-suspends-aid-to-rwanda-over-alleged-support-for-drc-rebels

King Leopold's murder rate
https://congoinconversation.fondationcarmignac.com/en/reportages/protesting-belgium-s-colonial-legacy-in-congo-pamela-tulizo

WHY MUSK IS WRONG TO EQUATE DEI WITH LOWER STANDARDS

Elon Musk thinks diversity in medicine is dangerous. Science says otherwise. In an interview with Don Lemon last year, the tech billionaire claimed that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts risk “lowering standards” - with potentially fatal consequences.

In this clip, an American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology-certified surgeon begs to differ, explaining why Musk’s argument is flawed. Dr Ruthie (i.am.dr.ruthie) points out that DEI efforts focus on recruiting and retaining diverse physicians because research has shown this directly improves outcomes for patients.

Her argument aligns with findings from a major 2023 US-wide study published in JAMA Network Open (part of The Journal of the American Medical Association).

Continued…….. This examined the impact of physician diversity on public health. The study found that Black communities with a higher share of Black primary care physicians experience increased life expectancy and reduced racial disparities in mortality rates. Interestingly, these benefits extend even to Black patients who never directly visit a Black doctor, suggesting broader systemic advantages. While the study’s authors note that further research is needed to establish any kind of causation (rather than mere correlation), the evidence strongly points to the conclusion that diversity in medicine benefits everyone.

So if diversity demonstrably improves patient outcomes, how exactly does that “lower standards,” @elonmusk?

video credit: Don Lemon https://youtu.be/hhsfjBpKiTw?si=RhWKPvsOZQGLYVd4

and Dr. Ruthie https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFGMfsdvTyq/?igsh=MTljbjZoem1leWhoYw==
Y

Sources
https://www.statnews.com/2023/04/14/black-doctors-primary-care-life-expectancy-mortality/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/study-finds-black-people-live-longer-in-places-with-more-black-doctors

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/26/global-witness-congo-conflict-minerals

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-09-04/debates/E36EC701-65B9-4730-9CB3-AA09FF81BCDA/SecurityInTheDemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/15/sunak-stays-silent-on-rwandas-role-in-drc-war-crimes-to-save-uks-migrant-deal

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-rwanda-development-partnership-summary/9dba78ce-012e-417e-9ff3-2f31b5cf5fac

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/british-politicians-hopelessly-smitten-with-the-rwandan-dictator-paul-kagame-b0ee18e63a05

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/kagames-british-propagandist-mitchell-earns-us-55-802-annually-from-rwanda-as-senior-advisor-on-fa97c7ee1e5c

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/andrew-mitchell-rwanda-war-q82lp737t

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/18/rwanda.tonyblair