US Navy to take over Horn of Africa mission

By Joshua Kucera JDW Staff Reporter Camp Lemonier, Djibouti and Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief; Washington, DC

The US Navy is preparing to assume command of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), freeing up the US Marine Corps (USMC), currently in charge, for operations elsewhere.

The CJTF-HOA has been stationed in Djibouti since 2002. The task force aims to disrupt violent Islamist networks in the area, including Somalia and Yemen. Thus far its command staff has been dominated by the USMC but the service is becoming overstretched as a result of the continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The interest is, with the ongoing war on terrorism, getting some of the forces that are here freed up by forces that are maybe less engaged elsewhere … and the navy is certainly well qualified to run the base," said USMC Colonel Dwight Trafton, the chief of staff for CJTF-HOA. "This will still remain a combined joint task force. I think what you will see is, instead of a core staff of marines like we have now, a core staff of navy and a navy commander."

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