Highlights: In mid-March, two FIDH officials were expelled from the country despite having a visa. They were leading a field mission on the state of freedoms in Djibouti, in partnership with the League for Human Rights (LDDH) Following this incident, F IDH feared reprisals and repression against the LDDH. Eventually, one of its leaders, lawyer Zakaria Abdillahi, was able to visit the France. "If you are not subservient to the regime, legally you do not exist," he says.

Djibouti: Human rights situation of growing concern to activists

A street in Djibouti (illustration photo). Wikimedia Creative Commons/CC BY 3.0

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In Djibouti, in mid-March, two FIDH officials were expelled from the country despite having a visa and were leading a field mission on the state of freedoms in Djibouti, in partnership with the Djiboutian League for Human Rights (LDDH). Following this incident, FIDH feared reprisals and repression against the LDDH. Eventually, one of its leaders, lawyer Zakaria Abdillahi, was able to visit the France.

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Several times imprisoned in the past, Zakaria Abdillahi was able to leave the country and is on a working trip to France. According to him, the expulsion of FIDH shows a deterioration of the human rights situation. "If you are not subservient to the regime, legally you do not exist. The problem is that we take risks. We are acting in the greatest secrecy. It is out of conviction, out of militancy, that I am in Djibouti. There is a real degradation of the system. So, we are in a rather Machiavellian situation: we are with or we are against. I am considered to be an opposition member, but I am not. I am a human rights activist. For them, you are the enemy of the regime," he said.

The lawyer Zakaria Abdillahi denounces a regime under infusion, financed by the countries with military bases in Djibouti namely the France, the United States or China and Japan. He calls on them to withdraw their support.

A service economy

For their part, the authorities reject these remarks. "Obviously, Mr. Zakaria never knew which foot to dance on. This character sometimes wears the hat of a defender of human rights, a good Samaritan who defends the weakest, sometimes a politician. He sat in the National Assembly during the 7th legislative election. Well, there is a human rights mechanism, there is the CNDH [National Human Rights Commission] which is willing to listen to each other. They just have to work with this mechanism that is already in place," retorts Daoud Houmed, spokesman for the majority.

On the military side, Daoud Houmed says that Djibouti lives on a service economy, that the bases provide less than 10% of the budget and that with the exemptions granted to the bases, the country's profits are much lower than we think.

Read also: Two International Federation for Human Rights officials expelled from Djibouti

Djibouti: Human rights situation of growing concern to activists

Djibouti: Human rights situation of growing concern to activists

A service economy

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