A US MQ-9 Reaper drone has crashed near Chabelley Airbase in Djibouti, prompting a security alert from the US embassy on Sunday. The embassy said it was “tracking an aircraft in distress in Djiboutian airspace” and urged people to avoid the area around the airbase. It did not identify the aircraft or give a cause for the incident.
Multiple regional media reports and open-source intelligence accounts have identified the aircraft as a US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper, which is understood to have crashed shortly after taking off from Chabelley Airfield on Sunday.
The cause of the crash remains unclear and the US military has not said whether the aircraft was brought down or suffered a mechanical failure.
Un drone américain s'écrase près du cimetière de Chebelley#adi pic.twitter.com/SJJjVFxiyK
— Agence Djiboutienne d'Information (ADI) (@AgenceAdi) August 9, 2026
Chabelley Airfield, south-west of Djibouti City, is a key US military base in the Horn of Africa. It is used to operate MQ-9 Reaper drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions across the region and the southern Red Sea.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions around the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a strategically important shipping route separating Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea.
There has been speculation that Yemen’s Houthi movement could have been involved, although there has been no claim of responsibility and no evidence has been made public linking the group to Sunday’s crash.
The Houthis have previously targeted US MQ-9 Reaper drones and have carried out drone and missile attacks against shipping in and around the Red Sea.
Some initial reports suggested the aircraft may have lost contact in the vicinity of the Bab el-Mandeb, but those reports have not been independently confirmed.
The US military is expected to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.
This is a Developing Story and will be updated soon