Tens of thousands of people held a massive protest rally in Djibouti against the regime of President Ismail Guelleh. Opposition leaders say that the police fired live bullets at peaceful protesters yesterday.
(Bloomberg) — Djibouti opposition groups will meet today to decide what step to take next after police allegedly fired on demonstrators yesterday, injuring at least two of them, an opposition leader said.
“The situation is very bad,” Ismail Guedi Hared, president of the Union for a Democratic Alternative, said by phone late yesterday. The police “used tear gas and they shot in every direction. I know two people are in hospital.”
In Djibouti, the Horn of Africa nation that hosts the only U.S. military base on the continent, President Ismail Guelleh’s People’s Rally for Progress party has ruled since independence in 1977. The 63- year-old leader, who was first elected in 1999, amended the constitution in March to allow him to extend his rule by two more six-year terms.
Yesterday’s protest turned violent near the Hassan Guled stadium in the capital, Djibouti, Hared said. Live ammunition was used by both sides and a crowd of about 100 demonstrators threw stones at the police after leaders of the protest were escorted away, according to the Djibouti-based website Djibouti24.
“The police are confronting demonstrators,” Mohamed Daoud Chehem, head of the Djibouti Party for Development, said by phone from the protest yesterday. “They have opened fire,” he said, without being able to specify if anyone was injured or what type of ammunition was used.
Chehem said that as many as 20,000 people had joined the protest against Guelleh. The country has a population of about 860,000.
Exiled Djiboutian opposition leader Abdourahman Boreh, who is currently in London, said the demonstrations may continue.
“We will see how it goes,” Boreh said yesterday. “This is the first day. We will see how the government reacts.”
Last month, Boreh called for elections scheduled for April to be delayed by as much as a year and for international monitors to oversee an electoral roll that includes 130,000 to 140,000 of the population of about 865,000.
Djibouti ranks 148th out of 169 countries in the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, education and living standards.
U.S. Concerns
“We’re closely monitoring, keeping an eye on developments, especially as they relate to any forces we may have in the region,” Pentagon spokesman, Marine Corps Colonel David Lapin, told reporters yesterday.
The U.S has had a base in Djibouti since 2001, while former colonial power France also has 3,000 troops stationed in the country, which is smaller than the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The republic borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and is seen as a strategic location in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism and piracy.
3 thoughts on “Massive protest in Djibouti, Police fire at protesters”
You think we have ethnicity problem? You did not see Djibouti. Ethnicity was nurtured at an early age even before the French arrived. And when they did, they capitalized on it. I had noticed that when I passed through that country during the very early 60’s. Then the French had favored an individual from the Afar ethnic group and the Issa’s were in constant revolt. There several bloody clashes between these two ethnic groups and the French used to stand by and watch the carnage. I forgot his name now but the then Afar leader used to be somewhat pragmatic and in the meantime business savvy. This ethnic tension have been well exploited by successive rulers since the Independence. I hope the opposition groups have found ways to over come this nasty and divisive affliction and their supporters constitute members of Afars and Issas. We all should understand that there will always be larger sections from both ethnic groups who are oppressed both politically and economically. I heard that the current and previous presidents of that country are from a certain Issa clan and that is who they favor or who get the first dips. Siad Barre used to favor and surround himself with cohorts for his Marehan clan and this one, I heard, has cohorts from the Mamasan clan of the Issa tribe. He is an Ethiopian by birth but naturalized himself later as a Djiboutian. So the opposition has work cut out for it. We should all pray for and support them as long as they don’t lead their struggle along extreme religious line. That will not get them anywhere.
This TSUNAMI is getting close to HOME , I wonder what are those woyanes thinking . I think the whole region
got fed up of the dictator ruling and needs democracy reform even the DJIBOUTI people want a change this
shows a good sign if once the ETHIOPIAN TSUNAMI starts there is no one to stop and we need this change
asap so we will have a lasting PEACE.
As the current freedom movement is spreading down south, next is going to be in Ethiopia. Hopefully the butcher of Addis doesn’t put up any resistance and will leave the country sparing innocent Ethiopian lives.