US Eyes Expanded Puntland Military Presence as Red Sea Tensions Mount

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: Responsible Statecraft

11 Aug 2026 12:27

Escalating Red Sea tensions increase Washington’s strategic focus on the Horn of Africa and raise concerns over Somalia’s sovereignty.

The United States is moving to deepen its military presence in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeastern Somalia, as Washington seeks greater operational flexibility near the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid widening regional tensions, Responsible Statecraft reported.

According to the outlet, the top US special operations commander for Africa reached an agreement in early August with Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni to expand an American military installation in the port city of Bosaso.

The arrangement has so far been disclosed only by Puntland authorities, while neither US Africa Command nor officials in Washington have publicly confirmed the deal or released its terms.

“Under the agreement, the United States will expand its military base in Bosaso to improve operations against terrorism and to help protect maritime security,” the Puntland Government of Somalia said in a statement. “The Puntland state remains committed to fighting terrorism and any threat that could harm the security, stability, and development of Puntland, Somalia, and the Horn of Africa.”

The reported agreement comes as Washington reassesses its military posture around the Red Sea, where the consequences of the war on Iran and escalating maritime tensions have increased the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa.

Bosaso offers Washington greater operational freedom

US forces have previously used Puntland as a staging point for operations in Somalia, including through an Emirati-operated facility in Bosaso.

Cameron Hudson, a former director for African affairs at the US National Security Council, said the latest development may indicate that Washington wants a more permanent and directly controlled presence.

“The United States probably now sees a longer term need to have a kind of wholly owned, wholly operated U.S. base in the region,” Hudson told Responsible Statecraft.

Such a facility could support an increase in US strikes inside Somalia, but analysts cited by the outlet said its location also makes it particularly valuable for operations linked to the Gulf of Aden, Yemen, and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Increased focus on the Red Sea?

Michael Woldemariam, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, said the development is difficult to separate from the broader regional conflict.

“It's really only understandable in terms of the Red Sea question,” he said. “I find it hard to understand what the logic would be independent of increased focus on the Red Sea, Gulf and maritime security questions.”

The shift comes after Sanaa announced on July 20 that it would impose a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea in response to renewed Saudi attacks, adding further pressure to shipping routes already affected by the wider war.

Bosaso lies on the Gulf of Aden, close to the Bab al-Mandab, a critical maritime chokepoint linking the Red Sea with the Arabian Sea.

Djibouti restrictions increase Puntland's strategic value

Washington already operates Camp Lemonnier in neighboring Djibouti, its largest permanent military base in Africa.

However, Samar Al-Bulushi, an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, told Responsible Statecraft that Djibouti's government has imposed limits on how the United States can use the facility during the regional conflict.

According to Al-Bulushi, Djibouti told Washington that attacks on Yemen could not be launched from its territory because authorities feared being drawn into the confrontation.

A larger US presence in Puntland could therefore provide AFRICOM with fewer political restrictions when conducting operations around Yemen and the Red Sea.

“The Trump administration might be reconsidering its engagement in Somalia,” Ahmed Ibrahim, a socio-cultural anthropologist specializing in the Horn of Africa, told the outlet.

The shift would follow a period in which Washington relied heavily on air power rather than expanding its ground presence. Trump carried out a record 124 strikes in Somalia last year, according to the report, with another 78 conducted so far in 2026.

Deal raises questions over Somalia's sovereignty

The reported agreement is also politically sensitive because it was apparently negotiated directly with Puntland without the participation of Somalia's internationally recognized federal government in Mogadishu.

Puntland has been locked in a prolonged dispute with the central government and does not currently recognize Mogadishu's authority.

“The informality is really important,” Al-Bulushi said. “If the U.S. wants to be able to stand by its claim — that seems to be a claim only — that it respects the sovereignty of the Somali government, then, in theory, it wouldn't be negotiating formal agreements with these semi-autonomous regions.”

Washington has long maintained relations both with Somalia's federal authorities and with regional governments such as Puntland and Somaliland, but analysts say direct security dealings with those entities could further strengthen them at Mogadishu's expense.

AFRICOM officials also met with leaders in Jubaland shortly before the Puntland agreement was announced. Jubaland, like Puntland, is embroiled in a dispute with the central government.

Putting Sudan between a rock and a hard place

Hudson warned that strengthening regional authorities while criticizing the weakness of Somalia's federal government could ultimately worsen the fragmentation Washington says it wants to overcome.

“We create this self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said. “If we complain about the weakness and division and then we suspend our support [for the central government] and we strengthen the peripheral states, then we are going to accelerate the thing about which we are complaining the most.”

Woldemariam, however, claimed that Somalia was already facing serious political instability before the agreement emerged.

"I'm not sure security cooperation with Puntland or Somaliland really makes it any worse. I think we're already at a pretty alarming stage,” he said.

Still, he suggested that Bosaso may represent only one element of a broader expansion of the US military presence along the Horn of Africa's Red Sea coastline.

"There's a lot of smoke here," Woldemariam said. "I think we're headed in the direction of a scaled-up U.S. presence across the Horn's Red Sea littoral. Ultimately the form it takes remains to be seen.”