Geo-Political Significance

Map 3. Administrative Districts of Djibouti

Source: CIA Fact book

Italian colonialists invasion of Ethiopia through the Somali Ogaden region are some cases to be cited for explaining burly fence vs. unbolt gate dichotomy.

The Afar and Somali regions still remain as a throat through which transactions to and from the center and ports of Asseb, Djibouti and Berbera flows. About ten stations in Addis-Djibouti railway line are situated in Shenelle Zone of Somali region. Around 75%

of vital road that link Addis Ababa to the harbours of Asseb and Djibouti run via the Afarland. Likewise the most utilized river in Ethiopia, Awash [Afar. We’ayot] that regularly flooded over 1200km runs through the Afar region of Ethiopia. Apart from availability of renowned archeological sites and significant geothermal power sources, the Afar and Somali regions have potential mineral resource deposit. Furthermore, the porous borders particularly to Somalia facilitate widespread smuggling of illicit goods including firearms in the region. These porous borders along the Somali and Afar region are yet remain as a potential threat to Ethiopia’s stability because of serious speculation for the infiltration of Eritrean backed anti-EPRDF rebel groups as well as the Shababs of Mogadishu.

3.2.2.2 The Republic of Djibouti

As a political entity Djibouti came into being 115 years ago, when Napoleon III signed a

“treaty of friendship” with local Afar tribesmen (Morgan 1978:47). Since its birth Djibouti has a strategic importance as marine gateway for Ethiopia. In the ninetieth century, the Frenchman intended to make Obock, on the Gulf of Tağura, the Shoan entrepot¹³. Apart from French’s commercial interest in the early days of colony, Djibouti geopolitical importance to the French boost up particularly after the opening of Suez Canal. As Lewis H. (1966:51) affirmed the geo-strategic value of Djibouti “ [it locates] at the Indian Ocean entrance to the Red Sea, opposite the British-held port of Aden, and

13 As discussed by Touval (1963: 39), “For nearly twenty years [since 1862] Obock lay forgotten by France.[...] a campaign waged by the author and traveler Denis de Rivoyre for the establishment of French enterprises and a supply depot at Obock met with general apathy and was not encouraged by the government. The 1880s, however, saw a general revival of French interest in colonial affairs. In 1881, de Rivoyre’s efforts were rewarded with partial success. The French established two companies, which proceeded with the construction of installations at Obock-the ‘Compagnie Franco-Ethiopienne’ and the

‘Societe Francaise d’Obock.’ At the same time Obock became the base for French commercial enterprise in Abyssinia.”

thus controls to the Bab-el-Mandeb, without which control over the canal itself is incomplete.”

The U.S. was also using Djibouti’s air and sea space as a controlling site to monitor all naval traffics in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean with particular focus on the Soviet’s naval activities. Yet after the collapse of the socialist camp, US rising demand to secure its share of African oil and the campaign against terrorism, derive her to establish a military base, Camp Lemonier, in Djibouti that serves as a headquarter of US-led East Africa Anti-Terrorism Task Force. Moreover, Djibouti’s intervention in the Somalia politics as a major mediator has further boosted her political role as a ‘stabilizing force’

in the region. Indeed, until the post-9/11 so-called ‘war against terrorism’, Djibouti’s strategic significance was little known beyond being a base for the largest French overseas military. Considering this fact, McGregor (2009:3-4) declared that “Few nations in the world are as strategically important but as little known as Djibouti, a small desert nation of half a million people in the heart of the Horn of Africa.”

Djibouti serves as an umbilical cord that connects Abyssinia to the sea. In fact Djibouti retains its historical value by playing the major role as sea outlet to the land locked Ethiopia. The newly constructed natural deep-water port at Doraleh as well as the planned ‘bridge of the Horn’ at the strait of Bab-el-Mendeb that would connect the continents of Asia and Africa, could possibly boost up the geopolitical significance of the tiny but one of “member of IGAD, a seven-member regional organization, one of the fifty-six members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, one of the five sub-Saharan member countries of the Arab League, and one of the fifty members of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie” (Rotberg 2005:49). As affirmed by the USAID report, Djibouti is home to the only warehouse not based in the United States that prepositions American food aid for Africa and Asia, and reduces delivery times by 75 percent¹⁴.

The Republic of Djibouti, like its neighbours in the region, had entertained competition of the Russian, French, US as well as its giant neighbours of Ethiopia and Somalia to maintain a steadfast foothold. All these competitions and scramble of the Horn led to artificial borders where a homogenous ethic groups are subjected to inhabit

14 http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/djibouti/index.html

the territories of two or more adjacent states. Each colonial powers acquired far through deception and lure the territories they coveted in the region, without paying due attention to the people who occupied the land. The natives were under no single state and had no central authority but lived in traditional administrative system within their respective tribe and clan enclaves. When the colonial powers decided to draw boundaries along their respective possessions, the helpless indigenous inhabitants found themselves under new and different masters. The newly born nation-states naturally inherited these artificial borders, which were first designed to suit the interest of the colonial powers in flagrant violation of human rights. One can find the Hedareb, particularly of the Beni-Amer people and the Beja inhabiting the lowlands of Eritrea and their kith and kin across the adjacent national border of Sudan. The same is true for the Anuaa and Nuer as well as Berta and Gumuz people who straddle the border between the Sudan and Eritrea. In the same vein, the Saho-speaking people and the two Tigreans straddle between Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as the Oromos in Ethiopia and Kenya have similar cases in point. Some ethnic groups in the Horn region could be even found straddling borders of over two states. The colonial geopolitical architect imposed on the Somali people who believe to descend from a common ancestral father, for instance, forced them to be divided among Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Republic of Djibouti. In the same manner, the Afar people who have distinct cultural and linguistic identity of their own are forced to be partitioned among Ethiopian, Djibouti and yet in another part formed as a result of land-mines spread by Italian colony – Eritrea.