Djibouti is a small East African country with an area of 23,200
square km or a little bit smaller than Haiti, Rwanda, or North
Macedonia, or a little bit larger than Belize, El Salvador, Israel, or
Slovenia.
Within this space, we can find numerous military bases
belonging to France, China, the United States, Japan, Germany, Spain,
and Italy, including:
- U.S.: Camp Lemonnier, (4,000 troops),
- France and Spain: Les forces françaises stationnées à Djibouti, (1,500 troops),
- China: People's Liberation Army Support Base, (1,500 troops with room for 10,000),
- Japan: "Self-Defense" Force Base,
- Italy: Base militare italiana di supporto "Amedeo Guillet,"
- France, U.S., Japan, and Italy: Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport,
- France, U.S., and Germany: Chabelley Airfield,
- Saudi Arabia: reportedly building a base,
Click here to sign and share the petition to close these bases.
For
a number of these nations, the base in Djibouti is the only or most
significant foreign military base in the world. For the United States,
which possesses well over 90 percent of the world's foreign military
bases, its base in Djibouti is merely one of over 800.
Foreign
military bases tend to result in more, not less, warfare. U.S. base
construction and "war on terror" efforts in Africa, including drone
murders launched from Djibouti, have resulted in a 75,000 percent increase in terrorism.
As with military bases around the world, research has documented a link between bases in Djibouti and sexual violence.
As
with military bases, especially foreign military bases, around the
world, these bases in Djibouti increase militarism and heighten tensions
-- including between nations like the United States and China that are
both basing troops in Djibouti supposedly as part of a competition with
the other. Already there have been accusations of hostile actions between the two in Djibouti.
These
bases support a government that the U.S. government-funded Freedom
House calls "Not Free," and the U.S. State Department says engages in
unlawful or
arbitrary killings, arbitrary detention, harsh and life-threatening
prison conditions;
arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, unjustified arrests or
prosecutions of journalists, criminal libel, and substantial
interference
with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
According to the U.S. State Department, Djibouti is home to significant
violence against women and girls
with inadequate government action for prosecution and accountability,
including female genital mutilation/cutting.
These bases make
Djibouti a target for terrorism/war, do horrible environmental damage
without local control, and take land from indigenous populations.
Djibouti's government takes in over $170 million a year in rent
from foreign militaries, but the people of Djibouti do not benefit, and
the poverty rate is 79 percent with 42 percent in extreme poverty. In
the 2018 UN Human Development
Index ranking, Djibouti is ranked 209th out of 228 countries.
It's time to close Djibouti's bases.
Sign the petition to the governments of U.S., China, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia: Close your bases in Djibouti, remove your troops, and substitute no-strings humanitarian aid for rent payments.
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