Amid President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent West African tour, from Feb. 28 to March 4 and including visits to Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Guinea, news reports surfaced of Turkey establishing a military presence on the strategic Horn of Africa, in Somalia. This development will make Turkey the fifth foreign country to have a military presence in Africa, joining Britain, France, Japan and the United States.

According to the reports, carried extensively by the pro-government media under such headlines as “New Turkey Spreads to Four Continents,” a training mission requested by the Somali government will prepare the national army to take on al-Shabab, the terror organization that attacked the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu in 2013. In this regard, Turkey will provide elite military training on counterterrorism, border security, force protection and small unit action.

Turkey’s interest in Africa is nothing new. After Ankara declared 2005 the Year of Africa, the continent quickly become one of the pillars of Turkish foreign policy. That year was the first time a Turkish prime minister visited Ethiopia and South Africa, and on April 12 that year, the African Union granted Turkey observer status.

In August 2008, a Turkey-Africa summit brought high-level representatives from 49 African countries to Istanbul. In addition to being an important indicator of Turkey’s economic opening to Africa, the summit also garnered African support for Turkey being elected as a UN Security Council non-permanent member (2009-2011), with 51 out of 53 African countries voting in favor.