With two months to go to the presidential election on 8 April, President Ismaël Omar Guelleh (IOG) has become the target of a growing level of street unrest, which could reach a high point at the demonstration called by the Unionpour l'Alternance Démocratique (UAD, opposition coalition) on 18 February. After the opposition held several meetings and demonstrations in January, several hundred Djibouti youths poured into the centre of the capital on 5 and 6 February and clashed with police trying to disperse them. These are the largest protests of this kind since the country gained independence in 1977. These latest demonstrations were triggered by some serious flaws in the marking of some law student examination papers. They rapidly escalated into a general contesting of government policy when middle and high school pupils joined in. The latter were frequently more determined than their elder siblings. They were also joined by young unemployed people. The opposition parties, who until then were playing a cautious game, then followed the flow and hardened their stance, inspired by the events in Tunisia and Egypt. They are trying to forge links with this youth revolt and channel it all into the fight against IOG getting a third mandate.
Somewhat unprepared for such dissent, the Head of State's advisors began to show signs of being jumpy and worried. Last week, the police and gendarmerie arrested and imprisoned nine opposition party activists and leaders, accusing them of supporting the demonstrators. On 9 February, the chairman of the Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits Humains (LDDH), Jean-Paul Noël Abdi, was arrested in his turn, and together with two other people taken to court for "participation in an insurrection movement". The three risk up to fifteen years in prison and a fine of FDj 7 million ((EURO)30,000). In fact, the LDDH chairman had denounced the violent repression and the use, according to him, of live ammunition against the young demonstrators.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
