Houthi advance near US base in Djibouti renews security concerns

The expanding reach of Yemen’s Houthi militants along the Red Sea is raising concerns about the security of the main American military hub in Africa, with recent territorial gains bringing the Iran-backed group closer to the installation.

Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which hosts several thousand U.S. military and civilian personnel, is roughly 80 miles from Perim Island, which the Houthis seized last week. The island sits in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial passage for ships entering and leaving the Red Sea.

The advance comes as the war with Iran has exposed vulnerabilities in a U.S. basing network built for an era when installations well behind the front lines were largely considered sanctuaries.

Even before the recent Houthi advance, the group’s proximity and extensive missile and drone arsenal had prompted warnings from analysts and U.S. commanders.

The Houthis could target Camp Lemonnier as part of a Red Sea attack campaign, the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project said in a March assessment.

U.S. Africa Command raised similar concerns last year.

“The Houthis have the capability to attack the Djibouti base cluster should they decide to escalate against the United States,” former AFRICOM boss Gen. Michael Langley said in congressional testimony last year.

Iranian missile and drone attacks have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings at American bases across the Middle East and forced the military to reroute some operations after relatively inexpensive weapons penetrated numerous heavily defended installations.

Some military analysts, including retired Gen. David Petraeus, have argued that the Pentagon’s traditional approach to basing in potential conflict zones needs an overhaul.

Camp Lemonnier, established two decades ago as a major U.S. counterterrorism hub, also predates the proliferation of jet-powered attack drones that now put more bases within striking range.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Sofge, a former commander of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, and analyst Jonah Brody, argued Tuesday that the American military posture in East Africa should adapt given the circumstances.

“The strategic landscape has outgrown an access architecture built for a narrower fight,” they wrote in a Small Wars Journal analysis.

China also operates its only overseas military base just miles from the American installation, sparking espionage concerns over the years.

“If we have learned anything from the current fight in the Persian Gulf, it is that getting the geography right in front of a full-blown crisis matters,” Sofge and Brody said.

Expanded U.S. military access in the Somaliland and Puntland regions of Somalia could provide a more distributed network of military locations. That approach would reduce U.S. overdependence on Camp Lemonnier, the authors said.

The Houthis have not publicly singled out Camp Lemonnier for attack. Djibouti’s nonconfrontational approach toward the group could also reduce the odds of such an attack, analysts say.

However, during U.S.-Houthi clashes in 2024, the group said it had a list of U.S. bases in the region that it might strike depending on how fighting escalated.

Meanwhile, signs of collaboration between the Houthis and the Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group, coupled with the Houthis’ extensive arsenal, have alarmed the Stuttgart-based AFRICOM.

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, AFRICOM’s current commander, spoke in May of a connection between al-Shabab and the Houthis.

Iran’s weapons and drones are also extending its threat network and Houthi influence into Africa, AFRICOM’s posture statement in May said.