DJIBOUTI - Facts & Figures

Facts & Figures

National name: Jumhouriyya Djibouti

President: Ismail Omar Guelleh (1999)Republic of Djibouti

Prime Minister: Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed (2013)

Land area: 8,486 sq mi (21,979 sq km); total area: 8,880 sq mi (23,000 sq km)

Population (2012 est.): 774,389 (growth rate: 2.29%); birth rate: 15.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 53.53/1000; life expectancy: 61.57; density per sq km: 22

Capital (2009 est.): Djibouti, 567,000

Languages: French and Arabic (both official), Somali, Afar

Ethnicity/race: Somali 60%, Afar 35%, other 5% (includes French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian)

Monetary unit: Djibouti franc

National Holiday: Independence Day, June 27

Religions: Islam 94%, Christian 6%

Literacy rate: 67.9% (2011 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $2.244 billion; per capita $2,600. Real growth rate: n.a.%. Inflation: 7%. Unemployment: 59% in urban areas, 83% in rural areas (2011 est.). Arable land: 0.04%. Agriculture: fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal hides. Labor force: 351,700 (2011). Industries: construction, agricultural processing, salt. Natural resources:geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum. Exports: 80.4 million (2011 est.): reexports, hides and skins, coffee (in transit). Imports: $471.3 million f.o.b. (2011): foods, beverages, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum products. Major trading partners: Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, India, China (2006).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 18,500 (2011); mobile cellular: 165,600 (2011). Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001). Television broadcast stations: 1 (2002). Internet hosts: 209 (2011). Internet users: 25,900 (2011).

Transportation: Railways: total: 100 km (Djibouti segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad) (2011). Highways: total: 3,065 km; (2011 est.). Waterways: none. Ports and harbors: Djibouti. Airports: 13 (2011).

International disputes: Djibouti maintains economic ties and border accords with "Somaliland" leadership while maintaining some political ties to various factions in Somalia; although most of the 26,000 Somali refugees in Djibouti who fled civil unrest in the early 1990s have returned, several thousand still await repatriation in UNHCR camps.

Geography
Djibouti lies in northeast Africa on the Gulf of Aden at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It borders Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. The country, the size of Massachusetts, is mainly a stony desert, with scattered plateaus and highlands.

Government
Republic with a unicameral legislature.

History
Ablé immigrants from Arabia migrated to what is now Djibouti in about the 3rd century B.C. Their descendants are the Afars, one of the two main ethnic groups that make up Djibouti today. Somali Issas arrived thereafter. Islam came to the region in 825.

Djibouti was acquired by France between 1843 and 1886 through treaties with the Somali sultans. Small, arid, and sparsely populated, it is important chiefly because of the capital city's port, the terminal of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway that carries 60% of Ethiopia's foreign trade. Originally known as French Somaliland, the colony voted in 1958 and 1967 to remain under French rule. It was renamed the Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967 and took the name of its capital city on June 27, 1977, when France transferred sovereignty to the new independent nation of Djibouti. On Sept. 4, 1992, voters approved in referendum a new multiparty constitution. In 1991, conflict between the Afars and the Issa-dominated government erupted and the continued warfare has ravaged the country.

The dictatorial president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had run the country since its independence, finally stepped aside in 1999, and Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected president. In March 2000, the main Afars rebel group signed a peace accord with the government. The fighting, severe drought, and the presence of tens of thousands of refugees from its war-torn neighbors, Ethiopia and Somalia, have severely strained Djibouti's agricultural capacity.