The US military and its allies have a large base called Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
The ongoing war in neighbouring Ethiopia has made the region increasingly unstable.
The senior US General William Zana told the BBC's Anne Soy that US troops were "here to respond to crisis"...
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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is due in East Africa next week, has said that he fears that Ethiopia could implode if the civil war continues.
ReplyDeleteDiscussing different ways forward, he told journalists in Washington DC that "out and out conflict... could lead to the implosion of Ethiopia and spill over into other countries in the region, and that would be disastrous for the Ethiopian people".
The other path, he said, was a ceasefire and negations - adding that the US was backing the African Union mediator, ex-Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr Blinken is expected to leave for Kenya on Monday, where he will be discussing the situation in Ethiopia. He will also be going to Nigeria on his first official trip to Africa as Secretary of State.
The US has placed sanctions on Eritrea's military, its ruling party and two officials, accusing all of contributing to the war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
ReplyDeleteThe head of the US Treasury department's sanctions office, Andrea Gacki, condemned Eritrea for undermining the stability and integrity of the Ethiopian state, resulting in a humanitarian disaster.
Eritrea has supported the Ethiopian federal government against Tigrayan rebels.
The UN has accused all sides in the year-long war of committing atrocities that may amount to war crimes.
The conflict has displaced over two million people.