Armed attackers kill seven Djibouti troopers

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Seven Djiboutian troops have been killed in clashes between the military and an armed opposition group, a presidential adviser informed Reuters on Saturday.

Djibouti, dwelling to one among East Africa’s main ports in addition to U.S. and Chinese language navy bases, has confronted sporadic violence, often sparked by protests towards the federal government of President Ismail Omar Guelleh, whose celebration has a decent maintain on energy.

The most recent assault within the north of the nation was carried out on Thursday night time by the Entrance for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to Guelleh, informed Reuters.

A spokesperson for FRUD, made up of members of the ethnic Afari group, denied being concerned within the assault, and as a substitute blamed a splinter group.

FRUD, shaped in 1991, signed a peace take care of the federal government in 1994, when it cut up into two teams with one staying out of the accord.

Assailants attacked a military publish in an space known as Garabtissan in Tadjourah area on Thursday night time, resulting in the deaths and an unspecified variety of accidents, Mohamed stated.

“The barbaric act perpetrated … by a terrorist group towards our military established within the north of the nation won’t go unpunished,” he stated.

FRUD spokesperson Ibrahim Hamabou Hassan stated in an announcement the violence was “unjustifiable”, and accused an armed splinter group run by former navy troopers of carrying it out.

The final assault by FRUD was in January 2021, when one policeman was killed, Mohamed stated.