Military history of Djibouti

In the mid-1520s, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi conquered Adal and launched a holy war against Christian Ethiopia, which was then under the leadership of Lebna Dengel.

Imam Ahmad was initially successful against the Ethiopians while campaigning in the Autumn of 1542, killing the Portuguese commander Cristóvão da Gama in August that year.

The newspaper Djibouti Libre published in Dire Dawa is also air dropped into the Vichy controlled colony and a 15-minute newscast is broadcast over the radio.

In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been backed by the United States.

By the end of the month 60% of the Ogaden had been taken by the SNA-WSLF force, including Gode, which was captured by units commanded by Colonel Abdullahi Ahmed Irro.

Djiboutian and French troops deployed, facing the firmness of their interlocutors, the Ethiopian officers yielded to the demands and agreed to continue the disarmament already begun.

The 5th Overseas Interarms Regiment took charge of a detachment of 4,300 military refugees, accompanied by a few families and embarked in 120 vehicles of all types heading towards the southern border.

The initial aim is to clean up a border area of 150 km2, collect, remove supplies, inventory and hand over abandoned weapons to the Djiboutian authorities.

The "Lynx Mike" detachment identifies thousands of individual and collective weapons, includes the T 55, ZU-23-2,BTR and BRDM, finally destroys the 50 tons of unpackaged ammunition of all calibers.

From May 30 to June 13, there will be a total of 12,500 weapons from the AK47 to the T64, including LRMs, 122 howitzers and more than 200 tons of ammunition from the 200 kg bomb to the cartridge factory, via rockets LRM which will have been moved, sorted, stored, even for some of them neutralized or destroyed.

Perfectly impregnated with the spirit of the mission, the porpoises, from the colonel to the simple soldier, knew how to demand from this Ethiopian army, demoralized, but still supervised, the strict application of the orders emanating from the civil and military authorities, Djiboutian and French, in starting with disarmament before providing them with the food support that has become essential.

It was triggered by tension which began on April 16, 2008 when Djibouti reported that Eritrean armed forces had penetrated into Djiboutian territory and dug trenches on both sides of the border.

Troops from both sides had exchanged fire since Tuesday along a part of their frontier that overlooks strategic shipping lanes in the Red Sea.