A KC-130 tanker aircraft arrives at Chabelley Airfield, Djibouti, in this undated photo. (Jayson Burns/U.S. Air Force)
U.S. military officials put potentially thousands of deployed service members at risk to toxic exposure from an open-air burn pit near a remote Air Force base in east Africa, a Defense Department investigation concluded.
The inspector general probe validated a hotline complaint that personnel at Chabelley Airfield near Djibouti were routinely exposed to “a thick fog of smoke” from trash burning, which caused breathing difficulties and other symptoms, the report stated.
The complaint was prompted by an IG report released in December 2024 on air quality concerns at the Navy’s Camp Lemonnier, which didn’t consider the nearby airfield, the report said.
The IG’s final report, which was published Feb. 20, did not say how many service members were potentially affected.
But the Air Force, which operates the airfield, told the audit team that most deployments to Chabelley are six months long and consist of about 120 airmen, a number that does not include personnel that may deploy from other services, according to the report.
Last fall, Air Force officials announced the opening of a new medical care facility at Chabelley and said at the time that the base supports nearly 1,000 personnel.
Used for drone operations and other Air Force missions, Chabelley has evolved from a small commuter airstrip into a more permanent installation and is poised to grow as threats in the region increase, officials said in October.
An eight-month IG review that included an April 2025 visit to the airfield found that U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa officials did not properly manage the effects of poor air quality at Chabelley.
DOD contractors transport products such as petroleum and metals from Lemonnier and the air base to the Chabelley dump, where they often are burned despite a prohibition on incineration of those items, the IG said.
The visiting inspection team saw the open burning of solid waste at the dump, and service members living and working at the airfield described symptoms such as eye and throat irritation, difficulty breathing and nausea, according to the report.
Among other findings, AFRICOM did not identify the Chabelley dump to Pentagon staff as an open-air burn pit or work with Djibouti to reduce or eliminate use of the site, according to the report.
Further, officials with the USAFE-AFAFRICA office of the command surgeon did not implement an air quality mitigation plan or ensure air sampling including certain toxins, the report said.
As a result, service members who deployed to the installation from November 2019 through September 2025 weren’t protected “from the increased exposure to harmful airborne hazards,” the IG said.
That put them at risk of serious health conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer, the document stated, according to the report.
USAFE-AFAFRICA officials said they “misinterpreted” the Pentagon policy to read it as excluding the tracking of open-air burn pits operated by Djibouti and only reported local household burn locations in the area, the report stated.
But in November 2024, when the Chabelley dump came to AFRICOM’s attention after a request for renewed open-air burn pit data, the command continued to omit the dump on its report to the Pentagon due to an “administrative error,” according to report.
Six environmental assessments of the dump identified it as an open-air burn pit for destruction of all types of trash, including tires, appliances and cars, and operating on “almost a 24/7” basis.
AFRICOM should have been aware of the open burning operations at Chabelley as a result of these test reports, the IG stated.
USAFE-AFAFRICA, meanwhile, did not ensure more specific sampling in its air quality testing associated with open-burn pits, citing in part lack of proper equipment, the report said.
The lack of sampling prevented the further documentation of those exposures in the medical records of service members who deployed there, potentially delaying targeted treatment and benefit considerations.
AFRICOM and USAFE-AFAFRICA officials agreed with most recommendations from the audit.
AFRICOM said it was working with Djibouti to reduce the amount of solid waste sent to Chabelley and would request an exemption from the Pentagon as required by DOD policy.
The AFRICOM chief of staff, however, did not agree that the open-air burning at Chabelley met the exemption criteria, according to the report.
Air Force officials said the Navy at Camp Lemonnier had loaned them reading instruments that would alert commanders and personnel at Chabelley of periods of excessive air quality, the report stated.
The wing at Chabelley needs $20,000 to secure its own equipment, commanders told the IG.
