US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Djibouti yesterday to visit an important military base at the southern entrance to the Red Sea used as a launch pad for operations in Yemen and Somalia.

The US base, which has about 4,000 personnel, is located just miles from a Chinese one, still under construction, which has caused concern to some US officials.

Djibouti is on the route to the Suez Canal. The tiny, barren nation, sandwiched between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, and also hosts Japanese and French bases.

The White House recently granted the US military broader authority to strike Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab has been able to carry out deadly bombings despite losing most of its territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the Somali government.

The United States is also carrying out strikes in Yemen against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). MEM