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Due to resource constraints, IRIN is not updating the country profile below.
Updated humanitarian country information can be found instead at the Djibouti country page on ReliefWeb [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc104?OpenForm&rc;=1&cc;=dji].
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 Republic of DJIBOUTI
Humanitarian Country Profile |
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Background
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Last update: February 2007 |
Djibouti, the smallest country in the Horn of Africa, is strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea with a large natural harbour providing essential port services to neighbouring landlocked countries.
Djibouti is still recovering from the 1990-1994 civil war that led to massive population displacement, destruction of infrastructure and a downturn in the economy.
Despite recent increased investments in economic infrastructure, particularly Djibouti�s modern port, which serves Ethiopia, the country remains underdeveloped.
A sizeable proportion of the population lives on less than US$2 a day while one-third lack adequate access to healthcare, education and clean water.
Djibouti is affected by events in neighbouring countries and has provided refuge to thousands of people, mainly from Somalia, fleeing droughts and war.
The country is also prone to natural disasters such as drought and floods, with a limited capacity for disaster prevention and management.
Peace and security
Djibouti experienced a civil war in the early 1990s after increasing tension between the Issa ethnic group-dominated government, led by Hassan Gouled Aptidon, and the Afar ethnic group's Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD) rebel movement.
The war officially ended in 1994 with a power-sharing agreement between the warring factions. However, a splinter group of the FRUD continued fighting until 2000 when it also signed a peace agreement with the government under the country's second president, Ismail Omar Guelleh.
Djibouti, a former French colony, maintains close ties with France, which has a significant military presence in the country.
Other foreign military contingents are also stationed in the country (US and German army troops), acting as a source of income for the locals and a stabilising factor in the often turbulent Horn of Africa region. Djibouti hosts the only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa.
IDPs/Refugees
Djibouti has taken in about 30,000 refugees mainly from Somaliland over the past decade. By end-2005, Djibouti was one of the top 10 refugee-hosting countries, with a ratio of 13 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants.
The country has also hosted large migrant populations from the neighbouring Horn of Africa countries of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea.
The migrants, most of whom reside irregularly in the country, represent at least 20 percent of the total population in Djibouti, exerting pressure on scarce resources.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will continue working with the government of Djibouti and Somaliland authorities on the voluntary repatriation of the remaining refugees to Somaliland.
UNHCR is also focusing on consolidating refugee camps once the repatriation to Somaliland is complete and conducting registration exercises to determine the size of the refugee population to offer better protection.
Democracy and governance
The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (the main ethnic groups in the country) became Djibouti in 1977 with Hassan Gouled Aptidon as the country's first president.
Aptidon governed Djibouti as a one-party state from 1981 to 1992 when the country adopted a limited multiparty system allowing only three other political parties to compete with the ruling party. He remained in power until 1999.
Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected president in 1999 after the first multi-party elections. Guelleh was re-elected in 2005 and is serving his last term in office.
The World Bank's country assistance strategy for Djibouti includes supporting good governance through ensuring transparent and efficient management of public expenditure and improving its equity and effectiveness.
Media
The media in Djibouti practises self-censorship. The government owns the main newspaper, la Nation, and public radio and television stations.
Private newspapers and other publications operate freely. However, in 2005, officials cut off Radio France Internationale FM broadcasts, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. This was because of the radio station's coverage of an ongoing French legal inquiry into the 1995 death in Djibouti of a French judge, Bernard Borrel.
Economy
The economy is largely service-based, with port, airport and banking services accounting for 80 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Djibouti has few natural resources and is mainly dependent on foreign aid, particularly for development.
Most of the country is rocky desert with less than 1 percent being used for agriculture, which accounts for only 3 percent of GDP.
The local economy is boosted by the continued presence of foreign military contingents, which provide financial subsidies, employment opportunities for the youth and technical expertise.
The unemployment rate is close to 56 percent, topping 60 percent among the most disadvantaged economic groups.
Over the past few years the Djibouti government has achieved significant progress in improving macroeconomic stability, according to the World Bank. The economic growth rate has stabilised at around 3 percent.
Population
Poverty is widespread, with more than 40 percent of the population, estimated at 800,000, living below the national poverty line, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
Latest available figures from the World Bank show that at least 42 percent of the population lived on less than $2 per day in 2002. Extreme poverty increased from 9.6 percent in 1996 to 42.2 percent in 2002.
Djibouti has a mainly youthful population with a median age of 19 years while the average annual population growth rate is higher than 2 percent.
The national or official languages are French and Standard Arabic. Other languages include Afar and Somali.
Most of the population belongs to the Somali ethnic group, mainly the Issa, Issak, and Gadaboursi clans, alongside the Afar community and a small community of Arabs of Yemeni origin.
At least 85 percent of Djibouti's population is urban with two-thirds living in the capital, Djibouti City.
Development indicators
The 2006 UN Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report ranked Djibouti among the �low human development� countries (148th out of 177) with a Human Development Index of 0.494.
Life expectancy at birth for men and women is 52.9 years, one of the improving rates in sub-Saharan Africa.
GDP per capita is $1,993, according to UNDP, while the gross national income per capita, $1,020, ranks Djibouti as a lower middle-income country.
Djibouti is also ranked 52nd among 102 developing countries on the Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) with a score of 30.
HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive past age 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the average number of people without access to an improved water source and number of underweight children below five years of age.
The combined primary, secondary and tertiary education gross enrolment ratio is a low 23.9 percent.
Djibouti's main development challenge is to create growth conditions that will spur private-sector development and accumulate human capital.
Education
According to the World Bank, Djibouti has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the developing world. The global illiteracy rate is 65.5 percent, with 85 percent of women in rural areas unable to read or write.
Only 29 percent of children complete a full primary course, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Of those children of primary-school age, about 50 percent are not receiving an education, with just 32 percent of girls enrolled in school.
The primary to secondary school transition rate is 59 percent, with at least 15 percent of girls and 22 percent of boys in secondary school.
Only 21 percent of the students completing secondary school enroll for tertiary education.
The challenges to achieving universal primary education in Djibouti include improving gender parity and the quality of education, with 29 percent of girls and 36 percent of boys in primary school.
Children
The annual number of deaths of children below five years in 2005 was 4,000, with a mortality rate of 133 against 175 in 1990, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The infant mortality rate (for children under one) stood at 116 in 1990, falling below 100 in 2005.
In a bid to improve the health of children in Djibouti, UNICEF is working with other aid agencies to increase parents� access to basic knowledge and skills about high-quality care, development and protection of children's rights.
The fund is also working at reviving routine vaccination to maintain 100 percent coverage against polio through the timely provision of vaccines and syringes, needles and safety boxes.
Health
Djibouti�s infant and under-five mortality rates are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, despite improving life expectancy, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
At least 30 percent of children younger than five are affected by malnutrition, which accounts for a third of all deaths in the age group. According to UNDP, 18 percent of children below five are underweight.
Tuberculosis, at an incidence of 734 per 100,000 people, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and measles are among the main causes of morbidity, with at least 30.6 percent of the population having a probability of not surviving past 40 years.
The high incidence of diarrhoea is attributable to inadequate sanitation: 27 percent of the population lacks access to an improved water source. In January, an outbreak of cholera in Yokobi, a village near the Ethiopian border, about 170km southwest of Djibouti City, killed five people and affected at least 40, according to the Djibouti health ministry.
There are not enough health personnel at 0.18 physicians per 1,000 people. The General Hospital Peltier, in the capital Djibouti, employs most of the country�s public healthcare workers.
The health system is characterised by weak infrastructure and lack of equipment, with most clinics yet to recover from the destruction caused by the 1990-1994 civil war.
The health system is also mostly curative-oriented, with little investment in preventative medicine. Vaccination coverage is low due to the absence of such services in medical centres and poor geographical access to services in some regions.
According to WHO, the main health-sector priorities in Djibouti include supporting national health programmes such as mother and child health, education, outbreak control and developing human resources and capacity-building for health staff.
HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Djibouti for adults aged between 15 and 49 years is 3.1 percent, according to the UN AIDS Programme, UNAIDS.
Until 1992, annual HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic attendants was less than 1 percent. However, between 1993 and 1995, a significant increase from 4 to 9 percent was reported. The prevalence rate then dropped to 3 percent in 1996 without a viable explanation.
At least 15,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV, of whom 8,400 are women older than 15. Currently, 16 percent of HIV-infected women and men are receiving antiretroviral therapy.
Food security
Djibouti is classified as both a least developed and a low-income, food-deficit country that is mainly dependent on imports to meet its food requirements, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
The food security situation is especially critical in livestock-dependent areas with the scarcity of water and pasture reducing the contribution of animal-derived products to household food and income.
With the country having mainly dry, desert conditions, annual rainfall is low and erratic, averaging just 200mm in good years.
The persistent drought conditions combined with successive seasons of failed rains have stretched the traditional coping mechanisms of many Djibouti pastoralists to the limit.
WFP is involved in school-feeding programmes targeting primary school-aged children in a bid to increase enrolment.
Gender issues
Fewer girls than boys are enrolled in schools with more women than men illiterate, even among 15-24 year-olds, according to UNFPA.
Customary law often discriminates against women in inheritance, divorce and travel, with rape victims often not pressing charges due to shame and fear.
Poor obstetric care, high fertility, and the continued practice of female genital mutilation contribute to unacceptably high maternal mortality ratios (730 deaths per 100,000 live births).
Meanwhile, UNICEF is working at promoting women's rights through increased access to maternal healthcare services, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and reducing FGM through the development of national policies, the training of care providers, provision of education, information and communication and social mobilisation.
The fund is also working at increasing girls' access to high-quality education by making the school environment more girl-friendly by training teachers about girls� developmental issues and rights. Women in Djibouti hold fewer than 11 percent of the seats in parliament.
Human rights
There is little data available on the current human rights situation in Djibouti.
However, according to Human Rights Watch, the Djibouti government arbitrarily refused entry to four people seeking political asylum from Eritrea in December 2004 in violation of Djibouti's international treaty obligations.
Djibouti has been a signatory to the international convention against torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment since 2002, which obliges the country not to return a person to a place where they face torture or ill-treatment.
Djibouti has also ratified the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women among other human-rights conventions.
Humanitarian needs
The humanitarian concerns in Djibouti include the rapid assessment of relief requirements especially following recurrent droughts, emergency measles and meningitis vaccination, nutritional monitoring, provision of drugs against diarrhoea, malaria and acute respiratory infections, expansion of basic health services in rural areas and the provision of clean drinking water. |
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| Djibouti in figures |
� Population: 712,000
� Pop. growth rate: 2.1%
� GDP per capita: US$1,993
� Pop. below poverty line: 42%
� Life expectancy: 52.9 years
� Infant mortality: 102.4/1,000
� Access to med. services: N/A
� HIV prevalence: 3.1%
� Access to clean water: 60%
� Access to electricity: N/A
� Literacy rate for population over 15: N/A
� Doctors/people: 0.18 per 1,000 people
� Displaced people: N/A
� Refugees: 22,000
� Human Development Index: 0. 494 (HDI 2006 Rank 158)
Sources: UNFPA, UNHCR, UNAIDS, World Bank, UNDP, WFP, WHO, Amnesty International, UNESCO |
| Basic facts |
Capital: Djibouti City
Languages: Somali, Afar, French, Arabic
Ethnic Groups: Afar of Ethiopian origin and Somali (Issa, Issak, and Gadaboursi clans), Arab, Italian
Religions: mainly Islam, Christianity, indigenous beliefs
Geography: coastal desert, rocky and volcanic soil
Border countries: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia
Natural resources: N/A
Agriculture products: fruit, vegetables, animal husbandry
Sources: Ethnologue, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNAIDS, World Bank, UNDP, WFP, WHO, Amnesty International, UNESCO |
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