Djibouti

Djibouti A small country which is strategically situated at the mouth of the Red Sea. Under French influence since 1859, it was declared a protectorate as French Somaliland in the 1880s. The French ruled through skilfully exploiting the tensions between the dominant ethnic groups, the Afar and the Issa. After World War II it became a French Overseas Territory, but in 1967 the population voted against unification with Somalia. Instead, it opted for independence in a referendum on 8 May 1978, and on 22 June 1978 an independent republic was declared. In fact, however, it has been one of the most dependent countries in the world. With virtually no exports of its own and an unemployment rate of 40 per cent, it has become almost entirely reliant on foreign aid. Its economy was focused around the harbour of the capital, Djibouti, which served as the main entrepôt for Ethiopian trade, as well as maintaining a sophisticated French military base. The country's first President, Hassan Gouled Aptidon (from the Issa people), founded the Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès (RPP, Popular Union for Progress) in 1979 and banned all other parties (1981). Owing to growing ethnic tensions leading to civil war, he agreed to the introduction of a multi-party democracy. In 1992, the RPP again won all the seats in the legislative assembly, though Aptidon admitted two members of the rebel group, Front pour la Restauration de l'Unité et de la Démocratie Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy, FRUD) into the government. In 1999 Aptidon was succeeded by a joint candidate of the FRUD and the RPP, Ismail Omar Guelleh. The chamber of deputies consisted of 33 Issa representatives, and 32 Deputies of the Afar people. In light of the reconciliation between the two people, a number of radical rebel splinter groups gave up their arms in 2001.