Ogaden Online: The official homepage of Ogaden on the Internet

The French secret services are starting to take a close interest in the businessmen in Djibouti presidential couple's orbit.

After being caught short by recent events like the swing to nationalism by Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast and the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the French secret services do not want to miss the bus again by an unexpected development in the situation in Djibouti before or after the presidential election in early April. According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE, French international intelligence services) is taking a close interest in the business contacts of the Djibouti presidential couple and its entourage. Particularly those of the First Lady, Kadra Mahamoud Haïd and her brother Djama Mahamoud Haïd, who is the governor of the Banque centrale de Djibouti (BCD). As part of its investigations, the DGSE may have taken a particularly good look at the financial transactions of the Moroccan national Mohamed Lamhaouchi, who recently became a property owner in Djibouti (ION 1300). Lamhaouchi is the Djibouti Honorary Consul in Morocco and a close ally of the First Lady. This shows how much circumstances have changed. When Paris decided in the mid 1990s to support the accession of IsmaïlOmar Guelleh (IOG) to the presidency of Djibouti, the French intelligence services were asked to close all the files they had on him.

After that, every time any criticism of the Djibouti President, his nationalist positions or some of his anti-French posturing was simply brushed aside. President IOG has therefore been able to obtain the unfaltering continued support of Paris by using his country's strategic position to argue against the risk of "Somalisation" of Djibouti. But this repeated practice of "holding to ransom" is starting to seriously annoy IOG's Western partners.