Eritrea, which gave a 30-year lease to the Emiratis for the base, similarly did not respond to questions sent to its embassy in Washington. The base also aided wounded soldiers by housing "one of the best field surgical hospitals anywhere in the Middle East," said Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who has studied the Assab base. The UAE announced in the summer of 2019 it had begun withdrawing its troops from the war, which still rages today. The UAE has used Chinese-made armed drones in the Yemen war to kill leaders among the Houthi rebels. U.N. experts have accused the UAE among other nations of funneling weapons into Libya amid its yearslong civil war.

Source: Ethiopian News February 18, 2021 13:52 UTC