Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2006
est.): $1.878 billion; per capita $1,000. Real growth rate:
3.5%. Inflation: 3%. Unemployment: 59% in urban areas,
83% in rural areas (2007 est.). Arable land: 0.04%.
Agriculture: fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal
hides. Labor force: 282,000 (2000). Industries:
construction, agricultural processing, salt. Natural
resources: geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone,
marble, salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum. Exports:
$340 million f.o.b. (2006 est.): reexports, hides and skins,
coffee (in transit). Imports: $1.555 billion f.o.b. (2006):
foods, beverages, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum
products. Major trading partners: Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia,
Saudi Arabia, India, China (2006).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 10,800 (2005); mobile cellular: 44,100 (2005). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001).
Television broadcast stations: 1 (2002). Internet
hosts: 168 (2007). Internet users: 11,000 (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 100 km
(Djibouti segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad) (2006).
Highways: total: 2,890 km; paved: 364 km; unpaved: 2,526 km
(1999 est.). Waterways: none. Ports and harbors:
Djibouti. Airports: 13 (2007).
International disputes: Djibouti
maintains economic ties and border accords with "Somaliland"
leadership while maintaining some political ties to various factions
in Somalia; although most of the 26,000 Somali refugees in Djibouti
who fled civil unrest in the early 1990s have returned, several
thousand still await repatriation in UNHCR camps.
Djibouti lies in northeast Africa on the Gulf of Aden at the southern
entrance to the Red Sea. It borders on Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. The
country, the size of Massachusetts, is mainly a stony desert, with
scattered plateaus and highlands.
Government
Republic with a unicameral legislature.
History
Ablé immigrants from Arabia migrated to what is now Djibouti in
about the 3rd century B.C. Their descendants
are the Afars, one of the two main ethnic groups that make up Djibouti
today. Somali Issas arrived thereafter. Islam came to the region in
825.
Djibouti was acquired by France between 1843 and 1886 through treaties
with the Somali sultans. Small, arid, and sparsely populated, it is
important chiefly because of the capital city's port, the terminal of the
Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway that carries 60% of Ethiopia's foreign
trade. Originally known as French Somaliland, the colony voted in 1958 and
1967 to remain under French rule. It was renamed the Territory of the
Afars and Issas in 1967 and took the name of its capital city on June 27,
1977, when France transferred sovereignty to the new independent nation of
Djibouti. On Sept. 4, 1992, voters approved in referendum a new multiparty
constitution. In 1991, conflict between the Afars and the Issa-dominated
government erupted and the continued warfare has ravaged the country.
The dictatorial president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had run the
country since its independence, finally stepped aside in 1999, and Ismail
Omar Guelleh was elected president. In March 2000, the main Afars rebel
group signed a peace accord with the government. The fighting, severe
drought, and presence of tens of thousands of refugees from its war-torn
neighbors, Ethiopia and Somalia, have severely strained Djibouti's
agricultural capacity.
In April 2000 experts estimated some 150,000 people, or more than
one-quarter of the population, needed food aid. The United Nations agreed
to spend $2.7 million to increase the city of Djibouti's port facilities
since it is a crucial regional grain terminus. In 2002, Djibouti became a
key U.S. military base used to combat terrorism. In 2005, President
Guelleh, running unopposed, was reelected.
In parliamentary elections in Februray 2008, which were boycotted by
the three main opposition parties, the ruling Union for the Presidential
Majority won 94.1% of the vote, taking all 65 seats.
