| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Africa Horn | |
| Seven killed, scores wounded in Djibouti clashes | |
| 2015-12-24 | |
Violence flared before dawn on Monday when police broke up a traditional religious ceremony in Buldhoqo district, close to the capital Djibouti, trying to move the people to a better site, Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf told AFP by telephone. “There were hundreds of people who gathered there, carrying arms like knives and machetes, and also two of them had Kalashnikovs,” Youssouf said. “Reinforcements of police and the army came and people refused to move and the clashes started.” The opposition Union for National Salvation (USN) party has claimed 19 people died. But Youssouf said the statement was false and the opposition were exaggerating the violence. “Medical authorities recorded seven people dead,” including six men killed by machete cuts and one young girl killed by a bullet, Youssouf said. Interior Minister Hassan Omar has reported the “arrest of several people involved in the violence.” Djibouti, a strategic port on the Gulf of Aden with a key position on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, hosts several foreign military bases, including from the United States, France and Japan. Many of the naval vessels tasked with combating Somali piracy in the region also use the country’s port to dock. It is also a contributor of troops to the African Union force in neighbouring Somalia, battling Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |