[1] Djibouti was a France strategic and military stronghold in East Africa and at the gateway to the Red Sea, remains jealously guarded within the French perimeter.

Speaking in the Assembly, de Gaulle tried to regain control and, a bit like in August 1958 with the Guinean and Senegalese episodes of his African tour, exclaimed: "The signs, which we were able to read, and the agitations of those who wore them, are certainly not enough to demonstrate the democratic will of the French territory here.

A barbed wire barrier was built to surround Djibouti City: officially, it was to fight against illegal Somali immigration; but it is also a tool for political control of populations supported by the French army - something that Pierre Messmer, Minister of the Armed Forces, deplored, and which constituted an argument for his opposition to Jacques Foccart on the Djiboutian issue.

The first Secretary General of the FLCS was Abdourrahman Ardeye, replaced in 1966 by a close collaborator of Harbi, Abdourrahaman Ahmed Hassan, known as "Gabode", who was succeeded 1966 after serving a two-year prison sentence, from the end of 1969, by Aden Robleh Awaleh.

French government troops suppressed demonstrations in Djibouti City on 20 March 1967, resulting in the deaths of eleven individuals.

Legislative elections were held on 17 November 1968, and the Afar Democratic Rally (Rassemblement Démocratique Afar–RDA) won 20 out of 32 seats in the assembly.

[4][5] The Organization of African Unity (OAU) sent a 15-member fact-finding mission (Egypt, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire) to the region from 29 April to 11 May 1976.

The OAU facilitated negotiations between representatives of the French government and Djibouti nationalists in Accra, Ghana from 28 March to 1 April 1977.

In the 1971–1972 period, the FLCS received 1500 pounds sterling from the OAU, 0.14% of the total amount donated by the body to different African liberation movements at the time.

At independence of the territory on 27 June 1977, 2,000 to 2,500 FLCS militants are integrated into the new Djiboutian Armed Forces, but not those of the MLD despite the request of Ahmed Dini.