Troops from China’s People’s Liberation Army were in June for the first time deployed at the country’s only overseas military base in Djibouti, the tiny African country bordering Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, and just on the opposite side of the Red Sea from Yemen.

Last week, troops completed China’s first live-fire drill organized at an overseas base, with the aim of training the troops and testing equipment in high temperature and high humidity environments, according to Sina (in Chinese). The South China Morning Post quotes a Beijing-based military commentator who says that “the high-profile drills were a message to local militants ‘not to harass’ the PLA troops.”