Djibouti

Djibouti   (Country)
Location	Africa
Type	nation state
Member of	African Union, Arab League, International Criminal Court, La Francophonie, Organisation of African Unity, UN
small country in East Africa.

Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a nation state in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east.

Djibouti is a multi-ethnic nation with a population of over 920,000 (the smallest in mainland Africa). French and Arabic are its two official languages, Afar and Somali are national languages. About 94% of Djiboutians adhere to Islam, which is the official religion and has been predominant in the region for more than 1,000 years.

Strategic location

Djibouti is near some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, controlling access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It serves as a key refuelling and transshipment centre, and the principal maritime port for imports from and exports to neighbouring Ethiopia. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) regional body also has its headquarters in Djibouti City.

Foreign military bases

Djibouti's strategic location by the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Gulf of Aden from the Red Sea and controls the approaches to the Suez Canal, has made it a desirable location for foreign military bases. Camp Lemonnier was abandoned by France and later leased to the United States Central Command in September 2002. The lease was renewed in 2014 for another 20 years. The country also hosts the only overseas Chinese support base and the only overseas Japanese military base. The Italian National Support Military Base is also located in Djibouti.

The hosting of foreign military bases is an important part of Djibouti's economy. The United States pays $63 million a year to rent Camp Lemonnier, France and Japan each pay about $30 million a year, and China pays $20 million a year. The lease payments added up to more than 5% of Djibouti's GDP of US$2.3 billion in 2017.

China has, in recent times, stepped up its military presence in Africa, with ongoing plans to secure an even greater military presence in Djibouti specifically. China's presence in Djibouti is tied to strategic ports to ensure the security of Chinese assets. Djibouti's strategic location makes the country prime for an increased military presence.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Seymour Hersh	“But one of the things we did, ostensibly to improve the conditions of prisoners, we demanded that the American soldiers operating in Afghanistan could only hold a suspected Taliban for four days, 96 hours. If not... after four days they could not be sure that this person was not a Taliban, he must be freed. Instead of just holding them and making them Taliban, you have to actually do some, some work to make the determination in the field. Tactically, in the field. So what happens of course, is after three or four days, "bang, bang" — I'm just telling you — they turn them over to the Afghans and by the time they take three steps away the shots are fired. And that's going on. It hasn't stopped. It's not just me that's complaining about it. But the stuff that goes on in the field, is still going on in the field — the secret prisons, absolutely, oh you bet they're still running secret prisons. Most of them are in North Africa, the guys running them are mostly out of Djibouto [sic]. We have stuff in Kenya (doesn't mean they're in Kenya, but they're in that area).”	Seymour Hersh	January 2011

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