In Djibouti, the small but strategically important state in the Horn of Africa, security forces are still working to disperse opposition supporters protesting the ruling coalition’s victory in Friday’s parliamentary elections. The vote marked the end of the opposition parties’ 10-year boycott on contesting elections.
Djibouti is home to the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa, and instability there may have important implications for the wider region, including Yemen and Somalia.
On Friday, authoritarian President Ismail Omar Guelleh and his Union for the Presidential Majority claimed to have won 49 out of 65 seats in the National Assembly in an election the opposition has rejected as flawed.