Qualla: Camp Lemonnier

Camp Lemonnier: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Abass Chirdon, CC BY 3.0. When American Marines first walked through the gates of Camp Lemonnier in 2002, the place was a ruin. The buildings were concrete shells stripped of wiring and pipes; several roofs had collapsed; goats roamed the property. The former French Foreign Legion swimming pool had been used as a trash dump. Two decades later, the same compound - expanded from 88 acres to nearly 500 - hosts roughly 4,000 American personnel, is rented from Djibouti for $63 million a year, and sits at the centre of the most sustained drone campaign in history.

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Image: Abass Chirdon | CC BY 3.0

Camp Lemonnier: Why Djibouti

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. Djibouti is small, dry, and strategically positioned. It sits at the mouth of the Red Sea where every tanker to Asia passes through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, just across from Yemen and an easy flight from Somalia. That geography matters. After the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen in ...

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Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain

Camp Lemonnier: The Drone Campus

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Air Force from USA, Public domain. Initial American operations at Lemonnier involved SEAL Team One Bravo, Air Force combat controllers and pararescuemen from the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, Marine FAST teams for security, and the 7th Special Forces Group. On 3 November 2002 a CIA General Atomics MQ-1 Predator f...

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Image: US Air Force from USA | Public domain

Camp Lemonnier: Operations Copper Dune, Jupiter Garnet, Octave Shield

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. The operations had names: Copper Dune for Yemen, Jupiter Garnet for Somalia, Octave Shield for the broader Combined Joint Task Force activity. In October 2011 a squadron of USAF F-15E Strike Eagles arrived. They flew combat missions into Yemen, sometimes supporting Yemeni governm...

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Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain

Camp Lemonnier: The Base Next Door

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. In 2017 China opened the Chinese People's Liberation Army Support Base in Djibouti just a few kilometres from Camp Lemonnier - the first overseas military installation Beijing had ever built. The two bases exist in uneasy proximity. In May 2018 the U.S. Air Force said military-gr...

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Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain

Camp Lemonnier: The Shipping Container

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Skilla1st, CC BY-SA 4.0. In May 2025 the Trump administration attempted to deport eight men - convicted of serious crimes in the United States, and citizens of Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba, Myanmar, and South Sudan - to war-torn South Sudan. A federal judge blocked the removal. The administra...

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Image: Skilla1st | CC BY-SA 4.0