Djibouti–Eritrea border

Doumeira, 2008

After weeks of tension and military build-up on both sides, fighting broke out in early June 2008 in the Doumeira area, where the border has never been demarcated, killing at least 35 people and wounding dozens. A UN fact-finding mission warned that the dispute could destabilise the whole region.^[1]

At the Security Council in October 2008, Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, said Eritrea had kept reinforcing its troops and refused to negotiate, and asked for demilitarisation and arbitration to demarcate the border. Eritrea’s ambassador, Araya Desta, said it was Djibouti that had provoked the conflict and that Eritrea had taken no Djiboutian land.^[1]

“Eritrea will not allow itself to be dragged into and invited to engage in a diversionary and fabricated conflict”^[1]

Qatar steps in, then out

The Security Council asked both sides to withdraw, and they then accepted a Qatari offer to mediate and deploy peacekeepers. In June 2017, days after Djibouti and Eritrea sided with Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar in the Gulf crisis, Qatar pulled its contingent out. Djibouti’s foreign minister said Eritrean forces had then taken full control of Doumeira Mountain and Doumeira Island; Eritrea was not immediately available for comment.^[2]