{"id":28987,"date":"2026-03-17T13:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28987"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:18:29","slug":"botswana-denies-presence-of-us-military-base","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/botswana-denies-presence-of-us-military-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana denies presence of US military base"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government of Botswana has dismissed reports claiming that the United States (US) operates a military base in the country, describing them as misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities in Gaborone say the Thebephatshwa Air Base is a sovereign military facility owned and operated by the Botswana Defence Force.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The government says the base plays a key role in advancing national interests, including strengthening emergency response capabilities and supporting regional peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It adds that discussions around national security should be based on verified facts, stressing that Botswana remains committed to maintaining strong relations with neighbouring countries through co-operation, dialogue and mutual respect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28988,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-28987","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Government of Botswana has dismissed reports claiming that the United States (US) operates a military base in the country","published_date":"2026-03-17 13:18:21","news_description":"Government of Botswana has dismissed reports claiming that the United States (US) operates a military base in the country","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28989,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28987\/revisions\/28989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}