te:
includes Dheklia Garrison and Ayios Nikolaos Station connected by a
roadway

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Djibouti

Introduction Djibouti

Background:
The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in
1977. Hassan Gouled APTIDON installed an authoritarian one-party
state and proceeded to serve as president until 1999. Unrest among
the Afars minority during the 1990s led to a civil war that ended in
2001 following the conclusion of a peace accord between Afar rebels
and the Issa-dominated government. Djibouti's first multi-party
presidential elections in 1999 resulted in the election of Ismail
Omar GUELLEH. Djibouti occupies a very strategic geographic location
at the mouth of the Red Sea and serves as an important transshipment
location for goods entering and leaving the east African highlands.
The present leadership favors close ties to France, which maintains
a significant military presence in the country, but has also
developed increasingly stronger ties with the United States in
recent years. Djibouti currently hosts the only United States
military base in sub-Saharan Africa and is a front-line state in the
global war on terrorism.

Geography Djibouti

Location:
Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, between
Eritrea and Somalia

Geographic coordinates:
11 30 N, 43 00 E

Map references:
Africa

Area:
total: 23,000 sq km
land: 22,980 sq km
water: 20 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
total: 516 km
border countries: Eritrea 109 km, Ethiopia 349 km, Somalia 58 km

Coastline:
314 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
desert; torrid, dry

Terrain:
coastal plain and plateau separated by central mountains

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Lac Assal -155 m
highest point: Moussa Ali 2,028 m

Natural resources:
geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt,
diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum

Land use:
arable land: 0.04%
permanent crops: 0%
other: 99.96% (2001)

Irrigated land:
10 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
earthquakes; droughts; occasional cyclonic disturbances from the
Indian Ocean bring heavy