Djibouti used to belong to our ‘Caesar of the East’ at the beginning of the 16th century, the Great Afonso de Albuquerque, also called ‘Leão dos Mares’ and ‘Portuguese March’, for exactly the same reasons as it does today. coveted by all who count. Geography, something that not even the devil can change! In the case of the Portuguese Afonso de Albuquerque, the entrance to the Red Sea, the Strait of Babb el-Mandeb, “The Gate of Tears” in the literal translation, today opens doors to the Red Sea and then slides into the Suez Canal in. flows into the eastern Mediterranean. In this regard, Albuquerque had a vision and plan to tear a canal from the right bank of the Nile River to the waters divided by Moses and shorten the career Metropolis – “Indias Portuguesas” by six months. In 1859, the Suez Canal was inaugurated for world shipping, making the Red Sea the “highway that no truck driver” wants to avoid, despite the toll! For saving time, fuel and for the safety of this part of the journey. Well, this security begins and ends exactly in Djibouti! Why?
Because this small area, located in the Horn of Africa and sandwiched between northern Somalia, southern Eritrea and eastern Ethiopia, has two direct advantages at once. It is midway between any conflict in Africa and the Middle East, and is currently a key point for the projection of power in all directions. The proximity of Yemen and Saudi Arabia puts people in Djibouti in the Middle East without ever being there (in the Middle East)! Djibouti has been stable since the turn of the century and presents itself as “a Switzerland in a volatile Africa”. Consolidating peace after the deposition of arms by the Frud rebels also happened with “weapons that preclude investment” from abroad. Djibouti is home to military bases from five counting countries. The classic United States of America and France, the surprising Italy and Japan and the “China Dragon”, whose “Logistics Center”, as the official press of the Chinese Communist Party calls it, opened in 2017, is also China’s first naval base in China. a foreign country.
Source: DN
