Regarding the name of the strait; the spelling used by Wikipedia is Mandeb, whereas google maps uses Mandab. Since they're both transliterations from Arabic, it seems both should be accepted.
My sister in law was stationed at the base a couple of times in the last few years. It was a running joke that I have with the kids. My aunt was in Djibouti but now she's in Uranus... Nothing like 8 year old humor.
I had an Uber driver from Djibouti once when I went to San Francisco. I think that's probably the smallest, most obscure country I've ever met anyone from.
Horn of Africa comes up quite often.