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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Apr 14 2011 - 08:20:32 EDT
http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2011/04/horn_africa The Horn of
Africa Why
the world should keep an eye on Djibouti
Apr 13th 2011, 18:36 by C.H. | LONDON
WITH the world's Africa-watchers distracted by bloody events in Libya and Côte
d’Ivoire, and elections in giant and chaotic Nigeria, it's easy to forget
about a presidential election in Djibouti. The tiny state in the Horn of
Africa, wedged between Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, has only 860,000
inhabitants. But Djibouti’s importance is underscored by the presence of
5,000 or so French and American troops, a legacy of its status as a former
French colony (it won independence in 1977) and a current western ally in
the wars against terror and piracy.
Results from the election on April 8th were swift and predictable: President
Ismail Guelleh of the People's Rally for Progress, who has ruled since 1999
(when he took over from his uncle), was re-elected by a landslide. According
to Djibouti's electoral commission, around 80% of the votes were cast for Mr
Guelleh, slightly down on the 100% he officially achieved in 2005. Turnout
was also reported as high, with 70% of the 150,000 registered turning up to
vote. Polling day itself was, according to most accounts, a serene affair by
sub-Saharan African standards.
Closer examination reveals a less serene picture. Mr Guelleh's victory came
in the face of weak opposition with only one candidate, an independent,
standing against him. Last year, he forced through constitutional changes to
allow himself a third six-year term in office. Opposition groups had called
for a boycott of the election after the suppression in February of
Middle-East-inspired
protests, partly provoked Djibouti's high rate of unemployment, in which two
people were killed. In early March, the president kicked a team of
international election observers out of the country.
All sad, but should the world worry? Despotic behaviour is hardly unusual in
Djibouti's neighbourhood. But as the presence of all those troops suggests,
it should. Aly Verjee, one of the observers evicted in March, spells it out
in an article in *Foreign Policy*:
Djibouti matters. It matters a lot. As the forward operating base of U.S.
Africa Command, Djibouti's Camp Lemonnier is a friendly piece of real estate
in the Horn of Africa, which includes Eritrea, Somalia, and Yemen.
Approximately 2,000 U.S. troops are based at Lemonnier, in addition to the
naval forces that periodically call at the port of Djibouti. With the
nearest friendly African port located in Mombasa, Kenya—1,700 miles away—the
United States, NATO, and the European Union have no alternative to using
Djibouti's harbor as a sanctuary to conduct anti-piracy operations.
Its unfettered cooperation on anti-piracy operations has endeared Djibouti
to many other members of the international community. A score of
countries—including Japan, Germany, and Russia—rely on the port of Djibouti
to sustain their naval presence in East African waters. At the mouth of the
Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti is strategically located to protect
some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which have become increasingly
vulnerable to ever more ambitious pirates. And the problem is not going
away. Despite some success in disrupting "pirate action groups," as they
are termed by the multinational forces, 14 ships have already been hijacked
in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean this year, according to figures from
the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center.
As the only US military toehold on the continent, Djibouti is also a vital
link in the war on terror. Unmanned anti-terrorism drones are deployed from
Lemonnier against targets in the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia.
With the likes of Human Rights Watch lining up to condemn Mr Guelleh, and
after the collapse of friendly regimes in the Middle East, the West may want
to take a bit more interest in the actions of one of its few allies in a no
less volatile and equally vital region further south too.
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