Trump should try to mediate Turkish-Israeli tensions in the Horn of Africa

Saudi Arabia’s war with the Houthis, as well as America’s ongoing conflict with Iran, have overlapped with, and drawn increasing attention to, simmering rivalries and outright conflicts on the Horn of Africa.

The historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore rightly has asserted that “In this scramble for Africa, the empires are no longer European but Middle Eastern and African.” Indeed, there is no shortage of players in the cauldron that is the Horn. They include Somalia and Somaliland, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Israel and Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia.

But the Horn hosts extra-regional actors as well. Djibouti, which borders Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia and has coastlines along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, is brimming with foreign facilities. It is host to five extra-regional states — the U.S., China, France, Japan and Italy — all of whom pay hefty fees to station forces there. Camp Lemonnier, the primary U.S. military base in Africa, is home of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa headquarters, as well as the Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central infrastructure hub.

China is upgrading what it calls the People’s Liberation Army Support Base. France has maintained a military presence of about 1,500 troops in Djibouti since it granted the country independence in 1971; it is the largest French base in Africa. Japan’s base is its only such facility outside the Japanese mainland. And Italy operates a military support base in the country.

In addition, Turkey maintains its largest overseas base in Somalia, which it has provided with military and economic support since 2011. Israel, the only state to recognize Somaliland,........

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