The Horn of Africa is witnessing far-reaching changes in its external security relations. It is simultaneously experiencing an increase in the build-up of foreign military forces – on land and at sea – and a broadening of the security agendas pursued by these external actors.
The combination of these factors has made the Horn the most militarized and complex security region, hosting the largest number of foreign military bases in the world. Though Egypt and Yemen are not in the Greater Horn, they are however part of the security complex of the Red Sea arena. It is known as the “choke point”; because much of the world’s commerce goes through this maritime route.
While those who control the Horn of Africa control a significant chunk of the world’s economies, the massive presence of six foreign military bases in Djibouti, and more in Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland, underlines the strategic importance of the Horn warns Dawit W Giorgis a visiting scholar at Boston University, African Studies Center in a piece titled Crisis in the Horn and the Attempt to Choke Ethiopia
