US Renews Lease for Drone Base in Djibouti for Tactical Reasons

WASHINGTON May, 5, 2014 (SDN/VR) — The Pentagon has just signed a new 10-year lease agreement with Djibouti in order to keep the only American military base in sub-Saharan Africa open. The U.S. base in Djibouti has become best known for launching drone strikes on al-Qaeda in Yemen, according to David H. Shinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996 to 1999 and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

“It is not always well known where the drones are coming from. Conceivably, they could be coming off of an American ship in the Indian Ocean. They could be coming from Djibouti. Possibly from some other drone facility,” explained Shinn. “But there clearly has been the use of drones in Yemen against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. And I think the assumption is some of those came from Djibouti.”
The U.S. military base in Djibouti was established a number of years ago to deal with the whole threat of terrorism in both East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Yemen, said Shinn. “So it covers a fairly wide geographical area. And ever since it was established, the focus has been on trying to support African governments and the Yemeni government in the region to build up their own counter-terrorism effort.”

The U.S. maintains no other full military bases in sub-Saharan Africa.

A long time ago there was “Wheelus Air Force Base in North Africa [in Libya] … There was, of course, a very large U.S. military establishment in Somalia for a brief period of time in order to combat the famine in Somalia. This was 1992, 1993. It was never termed a base. It was simply an intervention of American and international forces in Somalia to combat a very difficult situation there that ended up being an effort that focused on defeating warlords, but that is not how it started out”, explained Shinn.
According to Shinn, the establishment of a military base in Djibouti rather than Ethiopia made a lot of sense for the US.

“One, Ethiopia is a landlocked country and the idea would be to have some sort of facility that would have sea access,” said Shinn.
Djibouti, Shinn explained, has been stable for the last 10 to 15 years.

The Republic of Djibouti is bordered by several countries, including Eritrea and Somaliland.

Source: Voice of Russia