Djiboutian civil war
Map of Djibouti
| date | November 1991 to December 1994 |
|---|---|
| place | Djibouti |
| Casus Belli | Tensions between the Afar and Issa ethnic groups |
| output | Government victory |
| consequences | Cessation of armed struggle by the majority of the rebels, participation in government, multi-party system reintroduced |
| Peace treaty | Abb'a Peace Accords |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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Not known
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The civil war in Djibouti was a clash between the Afar rebel group FRUD and the Issa- dominated government of Djibouti under the RPP from 1991 to 1994.
background
It was based on tensions between the two ethnic groups of the country, the Issa - Somali and the Afar : The RPP party, dominated by the Issa, had ruled Djibouti since independence in 1977 as a one-party state in which many Afar felt marginalized. Since 1981 it was officially the only allowed party.
At the same time, there were significant political developments in the region when the authoritarian governments under Siad Barre and Mengistu Haile Mariam in the neighboring countries of Somalia and Ethiopia were overthrown in 1991 and the independence of the province of Eritrea from the People's Republic of Ethiopia became apparent.
outbreak
In early November 1991, the rebel organization Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), which called for greater political participation for the Afar, began a guerrilla war against the government. About 3000 Afar attacked government facilities in Abah . The government responded by increasing its armed forces from around 3,000 to 16,000 men. It also recruited Ethiopian citizens for this purpose, who in return were promised Djiboutian citizenship, and it was supported militarily by the former colonial power France. Clashes mainly took place in the Afar area in northeastern Djibouti. Several thousand Djiboutians fled the fighting to the neighboring Afar region of Ethiopia.
The civil war contributed to the re-establishment of a multi-party democracy in 1992 with a new constitution. Parliamentary and presidential elections were held in 1992 and 1993. As a result, the FRUD split over the question of how it should now cooperate with the government.
Settlement of the conflict
In December 1994, the Abb'a peace agreement between the government and the moderate majority of FRUD largely ended the civil war. Two FRUD representatives were given ministerial posts and in the next elections in 1999 FRUD supported the RPP.
A faction of the rebels, the FRUD armé (armed FRUD) led by Ahmed Dini , remained militarily active on a smaller scale until it also concluded peace agreements with the government in 2000 and 2001.
The peace treaty of February 7, 2000 includes the following points:
- The fighters of the armed FRUD lay down their arms and are integrated into military and civil life.
- A multi-party system is introduced.
- By means of decentralization, the great gap between the capital and the regions should be reduced; the Afar believed that centralism favored the capital and thus the Issa .
- Edition of a development program.
swell
- Deutsche Welle / Radiodiffusion et Télévision de Djibouti: Dispute settlement in the land of contradictions and conflicts - Djibouti on the way out of the crisis (PDF; 54 kB)
- European Center for Conflict Prevention: Survey: Djibouti: External Conflict Internalized (2000) (English)
- Presentation of the Djiboutian government on the country and history (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Amina Saïd Chiré: Recompositions politiques et territoriales, la decentralization en République de Djibouti: un processus avorté? In: Amina Saïd Chiré (ed.): Djibouti contemporain . 1st edition. Éditions Khartala, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-8111-0824-3 , pp. 110 (French).