Today, the Republic of Djibouti, the tiny East African nation with a population of just 8,75,000, is fast becoming the hub of global powers. Being in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti holds the key to major international maritime transactions passing through the Gulf of Eden and the Red Sea in the east of the country. Djibouti, being an integral part of the erstwhile French African Empire — l’Afrique Noire — even today, the French Government has an agreement to defend its former colony. As the legend goes, many centuries ago, Yemen and Djibouti were only one country and only after a violent earthquake, both got separated (Africa from Arabia) creating the channel known today as Bab-el-Mandeb. Thus, Bab-el-Mandeb means “Gate of Tears” in Arabic after the cries of those who died in the earthquake.
Why Djibouti has become the hottest address for superpowers like the USIJ Djibouti declared independence from France in 1977 when it was too impoverished to be swallowed by her big neighbours like Ethiopia or Somalia. A country about the size of New Jersey then had absolutely no resources of global importance “except for sand, salt and 20,000 camels” as the Associated Press reported. Over the years, when its neighbours were too preoccupied with famine, civil wars and AIDS, Djibouti had remained a nation untouched by the traditional woes of the continent. As the 21st century came with an unprecedented wave of globalisation mostly advanced by neoliberal economic agenda and massive network of information and communication technology (ICT), its sleepiness has attracted the global powers for refashioning the identity of the country.
After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the American soil, the US military rushed to open its first ever military base dedicated to counterterrorism, named Camp lemonnier. It is home to more than 4,000 soldiers who are mainly the part of the Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA). The most significant part of the Camp lemonnier is that it hosts an exceptional base for launching “drone operations” into Somalia and Yemen. When American military first took the base from Djibouti’s former colonial master France in 2002, it called the camp as temporary or expeditionary which consisted of only 97 acres. Today the camp covers a sprawling 600 acres with the state-of-the-art military facilities for launching any offensive against terror attacks. With $1.4 billion upgradation in 2013, the camp currently maintains a rapid response team of 150 members to specially handle future threats to diplomatic personnel abroad after the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, libya. For most of the Djiboutians, the presence of the US military could prevent an attack or an attempt to take over their country by Islamic radical forces like the Islamic State (ISIS) or al-Qaeda. However, the way the US military is fortifying the Camp lemonnier, it is fast spreading a strong sense of distrust among the ordinary Djiboutians about America’s attitude towards them.
Next comes the continued legacy of Djibouti’s former colonial power France, which maintains its largest ever military base abroad here. In conducting their “civilising mission” in Africa, the French had been highly successful in cultivating a small black elite class to whom they accorded full rights as citizens on condition that they accepted assimilation into French society and rejected their African heritage, family law and customs (Meredith 2005). This took a full circle in Djibouti unlike many of its former establishments. Then came the brigades from Germany, Italy and Spain to join France to form the European Union’s Anti-Piracy Force to counter Somali pirates. By 2011, Japan arrived in Djibouti to launch its first-ever military base abroad since World War II. And lately, China has joined the list by opening its first military point in Africa driven not only by economic considerations but also for security reasons. It came as a result of a Security and Defense Agreement between Beijing and Djibouti signed in early 2014 followed by a huge “cheque book diplomacy” by China. While finalising the deal, China Merchant Holdings, a state-owned enterprise, purchased a large stake in the country’s vital port of Djibouti, worth $185 million and offered to develop the infrastructure facilities at the port under the supervision of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation for $420 million contract. Despite US protests, President Ismail Omar Guelleh had gone ahead with the deal and allowed China to enter the Sub-Saharan region. However, Washington has the advantage of its collective bargaining power through which it could stall any further expansion of Chinese influence in Djibouti. It seems, with China entering the field, the intensification of power play over Djibouti has really begun.
Thomas Kelly, the US Ambassador to Djibouti, compares it with Casablanca of 1940 for its growing clientele of superpowers who all just want to have their presence in the country for promoting strategic security and trade interests. The story of contemporary Africa is not just one of horrible pain and disaster (mostly man-made), but also of plenty of hope for its future generations and for the rest of us. Here Djibouti correctly fits into the power game of the Western and other emerging States which are constantly vying for space either to showcase their military might or to expand the sphere of influence so that their say in global balance of power play remains intact (or mostly enhances).
To many, Africa can well be regarded as an object in the Western gaze. But there is a growing clamour coming from the young and the educated who outrightly scorns this colonial construct and ready fighting for their rightful place in the comity of nations. Against all the odds, the Government of Guelleh strongly believes that in the next 20 years or so Djibouti will become next Dubai. Having a port in one of the most geopolitically crucial straits in the globe, Djibouti could easily become a magnet for capital and free trade forging ahead with the continued engagement of the high profile powers in the coming days. Hoping to reap on the growing clout of the external powers in the country, Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf confidently says, “We have some assets that Dubai never had.” His Government has an ambitious project to make Djibouti the first country in Africa to be powered solely by renewable energy possibly generating from the “Khamsin Winds” which blows through the month of June to August. For attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) and to meet out the domestic energy crunch, the Government is planning to harness solar energy sources so that power supply problem could be sorted out to a considerable extent.
Its long journey from the clutches of the French colonial administration to the current status of being the “Small Big Power”, it has grown more than its size because of the changing dynamics of global political calculations. Ali Yacoub Mahamoud, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, proudly underlines the increasing importance of his country, saying, “In the colonial period, everything in Djibouti was viewed negatively. They all said we only had a hot sun, dry winds, and a lot of rocks. Nothing valuable. Even the nomads felt that way. But now the negatives are positives.” Probably, his claims can well be buttressed when two emerging “Ds” — Dubai and Djibouti — are compared: Unlike Dubai, Djibouti rightly sits on the busiest shipping lane in the world. Secondly, Djibouti is the gateway to many other landlocked African countries. This makes the country especially important unlike Dubai, and it can hinge on the strategic aspect further. Finally, the most spectacular aspect of Djibouti is that it provides one of the best “digital infrastructure”, rarely available even in Dubai. Therefore, Djibouti has gone beyond the network of gigabytes and quietly passed onto the stage of unimaginable “terabytes”. It is possible because seven submarine fibre-optic cables, the kind that carry the vast majority of the world’s digital information, come ashore in Djibouti, making it the most important hub of connectivity in East Africa.
On the other hand, from the eastern coast of Djibouti, Asia is only 30 km away. Bab-el-Mandeb, the narrow sea channel roughly separates Djibouti from Yemen. In fact, at the moment the country is situated at the confluence of three emerging geopolitical regimes redefining the contours of global politics of the century: A fast rising Ethiopia with a stable political regime, renewed engagement of China, and Rouhani’s brand new nuclear Iran (hopefully tamed) in the Indian Ocean Rim and the ever greater tug of war of global hegemons spearheaded by the US and its allies. On its backyard, Djibouti is at an advanced stage of building communication network with all its African neighbours. last year, a rail line had been opened between Djibouti to Addis Ababa and another linking the latter with the cities of Jimma, Bedele and Ambo. Besides, a grand transcontinental rail line is planned to connect Djibouti to Ethiopia all the way across the continent to the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. Within a decade or so, plans are afoot to come up with the second international airport near Addis Ababa which will be ready to host more than 120 million passengers much larger in size than london’s Heathrow airport currently receives. Finally, Bab-el-Mandeb holds the key as it is one of the world’s prominent shipping chokepoints through which passes around 3.2 million barrels of oil a day, accounting for an estimated 4 per cent of the global oil business. As there has been a regular threat from the Somali pirates to block the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, so it has forced all the five permanent members of the Security Council to come together to fight their common enemy, a rare unity in ideological diversity displayed among them since the days of the Second World War. This definitely adds to the glamour of little Djibouti after all.
However, crutching on the lap of the competing powers, Guelleh is indirectly resisting the full-blown development of the Djiboutian State and society and gradually weakening the country’s opposition for launching an attack on his Government. Djibouti, if it treads as it moves today would soon be a “theatre of war” for competing global powers. And it would turn out to serve as a gripping digest of the endemic woes (which most Africans are so well-acquainted) confronting the cradle of humanity in this part of the globe. Hope it does never become the “Gate of Tears” once again!
(The writer is an independent political analyst based in Delhi)