Strategic Somaliland Base: A New US Stronghold to Counter Iran and Houthis in Vital Maritime Routes?

JOHANNESBURG: As global tensions rise with the onset of a blockade at the Strait of Hormuz and increasing threats from Iran-backed entities targeting the Red Sea’s critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait, new avenues for strategic military partnerships are being explored. In this context, Somaliland has offered the U.S. access to a strategically vital airbase and port, highlighting its significance as a pro-U.S. ally in the region.

General Anderson’s visit to the facilities in Somaliland reflects the region’s pivotal role in global shipping routes. Somaliland declared its independence from the conflict-ridden Somalia in 1991 and has since positioned itself as a stable and cooperative partner for the U.S. in the Horn of Africa.

As tensions in the Middle East affect global oil routes, Bab el-Mandeb—aptly named the “gate of tears” in Arabic—has seen a surge in its strategic importance. Bloomberg News reports indicate that Saudi Arabia, adapting to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, is routing up to 7 million barrels of oil per day from its Red Sea port in Yanbu through this vital passage. Remarkably, the narrow 16-mile-wide strait facilitates up to 14% of the world’s shipping traffic, underscoring its global significance.

Meanwhile, security personnel in Somaliland maintain a vigilant watch over shipping containers at Berbera Port, a testament to the region’s growing role as a crucial maritime hub. (Photo credit: Ed Ram/AFP)

Enter the controversial offer to the U.S. of an air and naval base at Berbera in Somaliland. The official Republic of Somaliland site on X extolled Berbera’s virtues last month, boasting that it has “a deep water port along the artery connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean”, and “one of Africa’s longest runways, originally developed as a NASA emergency landing site.”

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

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

The U.S. does have another Red Sea base in Djibouti, but Fitton-Brown told Fox News Digital the government there is increasingly uncomfortable with some administration’s policies: “Djibouti becomes an increasingly reluctant, unwilling ally to the U.S. 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 U.S., Israel and the UAE combat the Houthis.”

The controversy comes over the question of U.S. recognition of Somaliland.

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

President Donald Trump, in the Oval Office last August, told reporters, “We’re looking into that right now,” when asked about the recognition of Somaliland and the possible resettlement of Gazans there, adding, “We’re working on that right now, Somaliland.”

But this past week, a State Department spokesperson told 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 year Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland.

In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, the amphibious dock landing 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/U.S. Navy via AP)

Iran is pushing the Houthis to take action in 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 news agency warned on March 21.

Baraa Shaiban, an expert on the Houthis at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says the recognition of Somaliland is problematic, as it “will upset the U.S. relationship with the Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, many of which are U.S. 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 screen grab captured from a video shows Yemen’s Houthi fighters’ takeover of the Galaxy Leader Cargo on the Red Sea coast off Hudaydah, on Nov. 20, 2023, in the Red Sea, Yemen. (Houthi Movement/Getty Images)

A spokesperson for AFRICOM told Fox News Digital, “The U.S. 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 both the use of bases and recognition of Somaliland are no-go areas, analysts say that with Somaliland offering the use of its bases without immediate recognition by the administration, the issue is perhaps privately not off the table.

And that could be why a recent video shared with Fox News Digital shows AFRICOM’s Gen. Anderson and a large group of senior military officials in Somaliland. Anderson met with Somaliland’s president, and appeared to inspect the port in Berbera in November, just five months ago.

That’s not the only reported visit. Somaliland’s top diplomatic representative in Washington, Bashir Goth, said at a recent Foreign Policy Research Institute debate, “The war in the Middle East has elevated Somaliland’s strategic importance. U.S. 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, but they declined to comment.