New Chinese Military Base in Africa Presents Security Concerns for US

China’s first non-domestic military outpost is slated to be finished by the end of the summer, according to Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, who said the base presents security concerns to the US.

The 90-acre naval base is located a mere four miles from the headquarters of US African Command, Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, where some 3,000 to 4,000 US personnel are stationed at any given time.

Under Waldhauser’s watch, the US hopes to keep tabs on what China does and does not do at the new base. Waldhauser recently requested an audience with Djibouti President Ismail Omar, to whom he "expressed [US] concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location."

The US uses Camp Lemonnier base as a hub for highly secretive operations, Defense Tech reported. For instance, the camp was involved in the January 29 raid in Yemen that killed Navy Seal Team 6 member William “Ryan” Owens, as well as 14 Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants and at least 25 civilians.

Both the Chinese and US military in the region will likely seek to address the issue of Somali pirates. The marauders have been virtually absent from the Horn of Africa since 2013, according to data from Office of Naval Intelligence, but popped back up on the radar Monday after buccaneers raided an oil tanker and its Sri Lankan crew. 

​"The question wasn’t really if an attack was going to happen, the question was when," John Stee, head of the Horn of Africa desk at the Oceans Beyond Piracy non-governmental organization, said. "The one thing that’s not really been addressed is the real root cause of this, which is poverty."

Chinese investors have poured $400 million into Djibouti to build a trading port and to develop a free trade zone in the region. In addition to bolstering China’s naval presence in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, the base will likely serve as headquarters for roughly 2,200 Chinese soldiers stationed in Africa as part of peacekeeping operations, Waldhauser noted.

Russia May Deploy Reconnaissance Planes in Djibouti

Russia has asked France to allow the deployment of two Ilyushin Il-38 naval reconnaissance planes at a French base in Djibouti to facilitate its anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Wednesday.

“We have asked France to host two reconnaissance planes at its air base in Djibouti in addition to three French planes deployed there,” Serdyukov said after a meeting of the Russian-French Security Cooperation Council in Paris.

The Il-38 May is a Soviet-era maritime patrol aircraft still in service with the Russian Navy.

The plane can fly at a maximum speed of 650 km/h. It has a range of 9,500 km and service ceiling of 10,000 meters.

Russian warships have successfully escorted more than 130 commercial vessels from various countries through pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast since 2008, when Russia joined the international anti-piracy mission in the region.

Task forces from the Russian Navy, usually led by Udaloy class destroyers, operate in the area on a rotating basis.

However, the Russian military believes that the deployment of reconnaissance planes in the region would significantly improve the effectiveness of its anti-piracy missions.

France maintains its largest foreign military base in its former colony located at the juncture of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Djibouti base hosts several thousand French military personnel, as well as a number of military aircraft.

For Those Who Cannot Afford The Real Thing

Spanish port police recently checked a cargo container going from Turkey to Djibouti (via Algeciras) and found 22,272 starter pistols and 13,500 additional pistol magazines. The container was supposed to contain clothing. These pistols are built to fire blank (no bullets) ammo and have an obstruction in the unrifled barrel to prevent a bullet from passing.

But Djibouti is in Africa, north of Somalia, and Africa has been building crude firearms, and modifying starter pistols to fire real ammo, for many years. Starter pistols cost less than half the real thing, use 9mm ammo and can be converted in a few hours by a skilled metal worker. Starter pistols use lower quality metal because the blank rounds impose less stress on the weapon. The conversion results in a weapon that is less reliable and more prone to blowing up.

Most parts of Africa have a metal working tradition that goes back over a thousand years. The manufacture of crude weapons is mainly to supply hunters, gangsters, and anyone needing an illegal firearm for any reason and cannot afford to buy a factory made model (even the cheap stuff from China). The cheapest of these weapons is basically a single shot pistol firing a .410 (10.4mm) or 20 gauge (15.6mm) shotgun shell. This is for a young thug, or a homeowner desiring protection. These are accurate enough for something within 2-3 meters (5-10 feet). Not much good for hunting. These cost $25-$40 each. These gunsmiths can also make full size (or sawed off) shotguns (single or double barrel), that sell for $80-$250. These could be used for hunting. There are also handmade, 9mm revolvers for about $100. These weapons are found all over the place, mostly among those who can't afford to pay a thousand dollars or more for a factory made weapon. On the down side, these weapons are more dangerous to use, often lacking a safety switch, and prone to exploding, rather than firing, when the trigger is pulled.

The converted starter pistols look like the real thing (an intentional design and marketing decision, and it's legal) and once converted sell for $300 or more. At close range (under 10 meters/31 feet) they are about as effective as they real thing.