“They got the green light for high-tempo operations with minimal oversight,” says Jethro Norman, of the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
Perhaps there was no target development. Some airstrikes, says Norman, who has extensive knowledge of the workings of military operations in Somalia, could be notably hasty.
Africom, he says, sometimes requests permission from Somali government officials almost as the strikes are under way. “Sometimes they’ll call an hour before and say: ‘We’re going to hit this target, please sign this piece of paper.’”
Perhaps the attack was based on “signature strike” patterns – observed activity that seems suspicious and therefore makes the people targets. “But you’re basically killing people without confirming who they are,” says Norman, and those killed in Jamaame could hardly have looked less like militants.
Norman says the Trump’s anti-Somali sentiment is notable in the context of civilian deaths. “The escalation of this rhetoric, the way it’s promulgated by Trump himself, gives a tacit green light to the military commanders that Somalis are now dehumanised. They’re being sent the message: ‘Go ahead, these lives don’t matter.’”