SUMMARY

[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]

The Republic of Djibouti gained independence from France on 27 June 1977. Djibouti is the successor to "French Somaliland" (later called the "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"), which was created in the first half of the nineteenth century by the French.

Upon independence President Hassan Gouled Aptidon ruled Djibouti through a national coalition government reflecting the country’s tripartite ethnic composition (Afar, Issa and Gadaboursi, in descending order of size). However, this national coalition broke down in the 1980s due to Aptidon’s one-party rule and the alleged favoritism of his own Issa kinsmen. To this effect, in 1991 the Afar-dominated FRUD (Front pour la restauration de l'unité et de la démocratie, Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy) began to wage an armed conflict against the government for the stated goals of a multi-party system and a government of national union. When the FRUD signed the 1994 peace agreement the group fractionalized and one faction led by Ahmed Dini continued the armed struggle under the name FRUD (Dini faction), leading to a minor conflict in 1999. The FRUD (Dini faction) signed peace agreements with the government in 2000 and 2001 which effectively ended the conflict.

In the summer of 2008 Djibouti was involved in fatal clashes over territory with its northern neighbour Eritrea. The unresolved border demarcation issue underpinning the conflict dates back to the map-drawing of colonial times and has caused confrontation between the two countries on two previous occasions, in 1996 and in 1999.

Since 1946 Djibouti has experienced the inter-state and intra-state categories of UCDP organised violence.