Ongoing tensions at Dikhil in the south of Djibouti

On the morning of Sunday, March 05, 2023, an armed conflict broke out in the locality of BAKERE, located a few kilometers from the sub-prefecture of AS EYLA (in the district of Dikhil). Armed individuals, from the recent wave of displaced Ethiopians, attacked the natives of GOBAAD who were peacefully asleep. The attack claimed the life of a twenty-year old (Ahmed Abdo Aden). Subsequent escalations were reported among the Afar and the Issa in the same region, leaving about a dozen victims in their wake. Houses have been burned down causing significant loss to property.

This has been sparked by the construction of a city in BAKERE to rehabilitate displaced people, thereby uprooting the Debne (an Afar sub clan) from their land. The IOG regime, far from protecting Djiboutians, continues to reinforce tribal barriers in an attempt to ‘divide and rule’. For instance, the security forces, in allegedly trying to restore calm, target the Afar with live ammunition and tear gas canisters. In one such incident, a young man (Ali Ismaël Loita) was injured.

On Monday morning, a large Djiboutian military contingent was reportedly deployed in the town of Dikhil, the same force that was accused of critically injuring a five-year-old child (Abass Ibrahim). See our last article on the ongoing repression of the Afar community: https://djiboutian.com/justice-for-houmed/ .

03-06-2023 Explore