Somaliland offers US forces Berbera base as Bab-el-Mandeb tensions rise

JOHANNESBURG: A strategically vital air base and port have been supplied to the US as a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz begins and Iran-backed threats goal the important thing Red Sea choke level of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Top US navy officers, together with the commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), Gen. Dagvin Anderson, lately visited amenities being supplied in Somaliland. Somaliland is a pro-US outpost, having damaged away from war-torn Somalia in 1991.

Bab-el-Mandeb, which is Arabic for “gate of tears,” has change into the primary route for oil to ship out of the Middle East to Asia because the Strait of Hormuz was successfully closed. Bloomberg News reported that Saudi Arabia has switched to transport doubtlessly as much as 7 million barrels of oil a day from its port at Yanbu on the Red Sea by way of the strait. It’s reported that as much as 14% of the world’s transport passes by way of the 16-mile-wide strait.

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Enter the controversial provide to the US of an air and naval base at Berbera in Somaliland. The official Republic of Somaliland web site on

“Berbera obviously has huge strategic potential,” for sea and air operations, Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former UK ambassador to Yemen and a senior fellow on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), advised Fox News Digital.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, on Oct. 22, 2020. (Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2021)

The US does have one other Red Sea base in Djibouti, however Fitton-Brown advised Fox News Digital the federal government there may be more and more uncomfortable with some administration’s insurance policies: “Djibouti becomes an increasingly reluctant, unwilling ally to the US in helping enforce sanctions on the Houthis. Somaliland, which is almost equally well-placed to address issues on the western and southwestern coasts of Yemen, can help the US, Israel and the UAE combat the Houthis.”

The controversy comes over the query of US recognition of Somaliland.

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander, US Africa Command, meets with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi in Hargeisa, Somaliland, on Nov. 26, 2025. (US Army photograph by Capt. Ubon Mendie)

President Donald Trump, within the Oval Office final August, advised reporters, “We’re looking into that right now,” when requested in regards to the recognition of Somaliland and the potential resettlement of Gazans there, including, “We’re working on that right now, Somaliland.”

But this previous week, a State Department spokesperson advised Fox News Digital, “The United States continues to recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia, which includes the territory of Somaliland.”

Last yr Israel turned the primary nation to acknowledge Somaliland.

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In this picture supplied by the US Navy, the amphibious dock touchdown ship USS Carter Hall and amphibious assault ship USS Bataan transit the Bab al-Mandeb strait on Aug. 9, 2023. (Mass Communications Spc. 2nd Class Moises Sandoval/US Navy through AP)

Iran is pushing the Houthis to take motion within the Red Sea. “Insecurity in other straits, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea, is one of the options of the Resistance Front, and the situation will become much more complicated than it is today for the Americans,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-linked Tasmin information company warned on March 21.

Baraa Shaiban, an knowledgeable on the Houthis on the Royal United Recognition Services Institute (RUSI), says the of Somaliland is problematic, as it “will upset the US relationship with the Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, many of which are US allies. It would be unwise for the United States to upset its allies in the region just to gain access to Somaliland ports.”

This handout display seize captured from a video reveals Yemen’s Houthi fighters’ takeover of the Galaxy Leader Cargo on the Red Sea coast off Hudaydah, on Nov. 20, 2023, within the Red Sea, Yemen. (Houthi Movement/Getty Images)

A spokesperson for AFRICOM advised Fox News Digital, “The US is not seeking to establish new basing, as such actions do not align with the America First security framework articulated by the President and Secretary of War.”

While publicly each using bases and recognition of Somaliland are no-go areas, analysts say that with Somaliland providing using its bases with out speedy recognition by the administrationthe difficulty is maybe privately not off the desk.

And that might be why a latest video shared with Fox News Digital reveals AFRICOM’s Gen. Anderson and a big group of senior navy officers in Somaliland. Anderson met with Somaliland’s president, and appeared to examine the port in Berbera in November, simply 5 months in the past.

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That’s not the one reported go to. Somaliland’s high diplomatic consultant in Washington, Bashir Goth, mentioned at a latest Foreign Policy Research Institute debate, “The war in the Middle East has elevated Somaliland’s strategic importance. US military interest has been very strong. Every month, there has been a delegation from AFRICOM to Hargeisa,” the capital of Somaliland.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Republic of Somaliland, however they declined to remark.