Djibouti rights watchdog slams police for attacking civilians

The Djiboutian Human Rights League (LDDH) has denounced the police for waging "a coordinated attack" against civilians that left several people dead in early August, according to a report seen by AFP on Thursday.

The report alleged that both plainclothes policemen and uniformed officers took part in violent clashes that hit the capital's Afar-dominated neighbourhoods on August 1.

The Afar, who straddle Djibouti's borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Issa are Djibouti's two main ethnic groups.

"Plainclothes police aided by Issa civilians began to set houses on fire," the LDDH said in the report signed by its president Omar Ali Ewado and dated Tuesday.

It said it was a "coordinated attack on defenceless civilians and wreaked havoc on Afar districts".

"Men and women of the neighbourhood who wanted to put out the fire and stop the rioters were attacked by uniformed police, who fired live ammunition against these innocent people."

Public prosecutor Lamisse Mohamed Said last week said three people had died in August 1 violence in Djibouti City, leading to several arrests, but did not say how.

Witnesses had told AFP that about 10 people were killed in the clashes, which saw Issa and Afar houses burned.

'Incredible repression'

On Sunday, Djibouti's Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed had condemned the unrest as "barbaric acts perpetrated by despicable individuaafarls acting under the cover of a pseudo communitarianism".

But the LDDH rejected the government version of events.

Map of Djibouti. By Tupac POINTU (AFP)

"Contrary to the statements of the government authorities, relayed by some media, this incident... is not intercommunal because the police were omnipresent and were at the forefront of the fighting against peaceful Afar citizens," it said.

The rights group described an atmosphere of "incredible repression" in recent months in the country that has been ruled by President Ismail Omar Guelleh since 1999.

It said 15 people had died in early August, mostly Afar, and 250 homes had been torched, triggering demonstrations in several towns, including the capital and the city of Tadjourah to the northwest.

In late July, Ethiopia's Somali region saw clashes between the Afar and Issa communities near Djibouti's southern border.

Flanked by Somalia and opposite Yemen, Djibouti has remained stable in a volatile neighbourhood, drawing foreign military powers such as former colonial ruler France, the United States and China to establish bases there.

But the country has also seen an erosion of press freedom and a crackdown on dissent as it has courted foreign interest.

Djibouti's GDP per capita income is about $3,500, higher than much of sub-Saharan Africa, but around 20 percent of the population live in extreme poverty and 26 percent are unemployed, according to the World Bank.