While global attention has been fixed on theUS-Iranian conflict, the Trump administration has quietly conducted 58 confirmed airstrikes in Somalia so far in 2026, a pace that threatens to shatter its own annual bombing record.
The figure, drawn exclusively fromUS Africa Command (AFRICOM) press releases, represents a continuation of what analysts at Washington-based think tank New America describe as the most dramatic escalation of the US air war in Somalia in American history.
Trump's administration launched 124 airstrikes in Somalia across 2025, nearly double the previous annual record of 63, which Trump himself set during his first term in 2019. If the current 2026 tempo holds, projections suggest the US could surpass 300 strikes in the country by year's end. Senior administration officials have not addressed the campaign in any public forum, and it has received virtually no coverage from mainstream US media outlets.
The most recent confirmed strike in Somalia took place on 21 April 2026.AFRICOM's official press releasestates that the attack targeted al-Shabaab in the vicinity of Wadajir, approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the southern port city of Kismayo in Somalia's Jubaland region. The command provided no information on casualties, bomb type, or aircraft involved, a pattern that has defined nearly every public disclosure under the current administration.
That silence is deliberate. AFRICOM suspended sharing casualty assessments with reporters in the spring of 2025, stating at the time that it was 'temporarily refraining from publishing casualty estimates while the new administration finalises its policy.'Researchers at the West Point Combating Terrorism Centrenoted that the pause has made independent verification of strike outcomes essentially impossible. The command also stopped responding to queries on assessed death tolls as a matter of policy.
Antiwar.com, which has tracked every AFRICOM press release since the start of 2026,reported on 23 Aprilthat the Jubaland attack brought the confirmed 2026 total to at least 58 strikes. The qualifier 'at least' is significant: AFRICOM's press releases do not always capture every operation, and the Somali government has announced parallel operations against al-Shabaab for which no corresponding US announcement exists.
The surge did not happen by accident. Shortly after Trump returned to office in January 2025, Defence Secretary Pete Hegsethissued a directivethat reversed Biden-era restrictions requiring White House approval for strikes conducted outside formally designated war zones. The policy shift handed AFRICOM commanders significantly broader authority to independently authorise attacks, including against targets beyond the command's conventional battlefield boundaries.
AFRICOM's then-commander General Michael Langleytold the Senate in April 2025that the expanded authorities gave the command 'the capability to hit them harder.' AFRICOM spokeswoman Kelly Callahan confirmed in a statement to Stars and Stripes that the directive directly corresponded with the uptick in strike frequency.
David Sterman, a senior policy analyst at New America, told Al Jazeera that there appeared to be 'a demand signal from the White House for escalation' alongside 'a willingness to allow more clearly offensive uses of strikes with less scrutiny and regulation.'
The shift also expanded the pool of people who could be lawfully targeted. Under Biden, the standard focused on senior operatives; under the Hegseth framework, sustained airstrikes against lower-level fighters became standard practice.The West Point CTC notedthat the average assessed death toll per strike in the early months of 2025 was roughly 1.4 militants, substantially below the 2023 average of 6.1 per strike, suggesting a broadened targeting profile rather than precision operations against high-value individuals.
Source: International Business Times UK
