OWN CORRESPONDENT, Djibouti | Saturday 8.00pm.
NEW President Ismael Omar Guelleh was sworn in as head of state of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa on Saturday at a ceremony attended by leaders from Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Omar Guelleh, 52, was elected on April 9 and had already been seen as an heir-designate to Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who ruled the former French colony located at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for 22 years.
Sudan’s President Omar el-Beshir was present with Kenyan Vice-President George Saitoti and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of neighbouring Ethiopia.
Djibouti’s port has gained significance for Addis Ababa since the start last May of Ethiopia’s border war with Eritrea, its Red Sea coastal province until de facto independence in 1991 and international recognition in May 1993.
Last November, Djibouti severed diplomatic ties with Eritrea, its other neighbour apart from Somalia, after the Asmara government of President Issaias Afeworki accused it of backing Ethiopia in the border conflict.
Yemen, across the strategic sea channel from Djibouti, and Egypt sent ministerial delegations, and the ambassadors of some 40 other countries were present for the ceremony.
The new leader was from independence in 1977 head of the presidential cabinet’s office, personally responsible for Gouled’s security and head of the intelligence and defence services.
Ismail Omar managed to forestall all other pretenders to the succession who had come forward at one time or another in the former territory of the Issas and the Afars, dominated by the former ethnic group and marked by sporadic rebellion by the latter. In 1993, he brought a major faction of the Afar rebel Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD) into a power-sharing deal after giving the army and police the full means to put an end to serious harassment of the security forces which began in 1991.