Camp Lemonnier

Camp Lemonnier is a United States Navy expeditionary base at Ambouli, on the southern side of Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti City, Djibouti. The site is owned by the Government of Djibouti and leased to the United States. It is operated by Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central, and is the largest US military installation in Africa. Its garrison is the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), the US Africa Command element responsible for operations in the Horn of Africa region, which supports counter-terrorism activity in Yemen and Somalia under the named operations Copper Dune, Jupiter Garnet and Octave Shield.

Resident commands include the CJTF-HOA commander and staff, US Marine Security Forces providing external security, a Navy Seabee battalion conducting water-well drilling, and US Army units furnishing security, training and civil-military operations support. The Special Operations Command and Control Element – Horn of Africa directs SOCOM units assigned to the region, including elements of Joint Special Operations Task Force – Trans Sahara and Naval Special Warfare Unit 10, and a rotational US Army Special Forces detachment conducting foreign internal defence training. The 449th Air Expeditionary Group is the Air Force component to CJTF-HOA, comprising the 81st Expeditionary Rescue Squadron with HC-130P Combat King and HC-130J Combat King II aircraft and the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron with pararescuemen. Aircraft detachments include Marine CH-53 heavy-lift helicopters, MV-22 Ospreys and KC-130J tankers, USAF HH-60G Pave Hawks, C-130Js and periodically C-17s, and a Navy P-8 Poseidon detachment assigned to Commander, Task Force 67 under Sixth Fleet.

The camp shares the airport's asphalt runway, and holds a parallel taxiway and auxiliary support apron added from about 2010. Billeting is provided by containerised living units. A French military munitions storage facility adjoins the site. The base lease includes rights to the neighbouring airport and port facilities.

The facility, formerly French and later run by the Djibouti Armed Forces, was leased to the United States in 2002, with CJTF-HOA moving ashore from USS Mount Whitney in May 2003 after renovation of the derelict buildings. The Marine Corps transferred responsibility to the Navy on 1 July 2006. Successive leases expanded the camp from 88 acres to nearly 500 acres, converting it from an expeditionary site to a long-term installation, with a 20-year lease extension agreed in 2014.