The US has begun a $70 million military construction project to expand a runway at the Manda Bay airbase in Kenya near the Somali border as it continues to significantly escalate its air war in Somalia.
US and Kenyan officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to launch the construction project, which is being funded by the US State Department. The ceremony was attended by Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the commander of US Africa Command, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The base at Manda Bay is seen as a key hub for US military operations in Somalia, where the US launched at least 25 airstrikes in the month of January alone, an unprecedented rate of US attacks. US strikes have targeted an ISIS affiliate in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland region and al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
Back in 2020, the Manda Bay airbase in Kenya came under attack by al-Shabaab. The militant group targeted Camp Simba, a part of the base used by US forces, and killed one US soldier and two American contractors.
The US and its allies have been fighting against al-Shabaab since the group first emerged following a US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, which ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a Muslim coalition that briefly held power in Mogadishu.
