Somalilandsun- A United Arab Emirates military base will start operations in June 2019 in the Republic of Somaliland, according to a diplomat involved in talks for the facility.
The growing UAE military presence in the Horn of Africa is intended to protect the flow of trade through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is a key shipping lane en route to the Suez Canal. This shipping lane is used by oil tankers and other cargo vessels.
“The UAE military base will help the whole region — piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping: we don’t have resources to watch our coast,” said Somaliland’s former ambassador to the UAE Bashe Awil Omar.
source: https://www.brookings.edu/
