Djibouti

City of Djibouti Jibuti Ville de Djibouti
Location of Djibouti City in Djibouti
Coordinates: 11°36′N 43°10′E / 11.6°N 43.167°E / 11.6; 43.167
Country	Republic of Djibouti
Founded	1888
Elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population
- Total	623,891

The City of Djibouti (Arabic: جيبوتي‎, Somali: Jabuuti, French: Ville de Djibouti) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Djibouti. It lies on a peninsula that divides the Gulf of Aden from the Gulf of Tadjoura.

The European Quarter

Djibouti city has the same status as the country's five regions. The metropolitan territory borders the Arta Region to the south and west, and the Gulf of Tadjourah/Gulf of Aden to the north. The city is home to a population of around 400,000 people, its planned centre having been divided into the former European and African quarters.

The Djibouti-Addis Ababa Railway runs from the city to Addis Ababa, while it is also home to the Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport. Northwest of the city centre lies the city's port, used for international trade, for fishing, and by ferries to Obock and Tadjoura.

One travel writer describes Djibouti as having an identity problem, "it is the sedentary capital of a nomadic people, an African city designed like a European settlement and a kind of French Hong Kong in the Red Sea."^[1] Features of Djibouti City include beaches along its eastern shore and the large Central Market, the national stadium Stade du Ville, the Presidential Palace and Hamouli Mosque.

History

Founded as a seaport in 1888 by the Spaniard Eloi Pino, Djibouti became the capital of French Somaliland in 1891, replacing Tadjourah. It has remained the capital for the succeeding colonial government of French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, as well as for the independent country of Djibouti.

During two days in April 2004, over 100 mm of rainfall inundated Djibouti. As a consequence, the Ambouli River burst its banks on 12 April killing 53 people and rendering another 1,500 homeless, who had been living in the river's wadis, or dry watercourses. These homeless included Somali and Oromo refugees from neighboring countries.^[2]

Port of Djibouti

Since the start of the Eritrean-Ethiopian War in May 1998, Djibouti has become the primary port for Ethiopia. Djibouti port authorities were caught unprepared, at first, when shipping traffic from Assab and Massawa in Eritrea was diverted to their port. Over the following three months, the port handled almost as much cargo as it had during the whole of 1997. The government invested tens of millions of US dollars upgrading the port facilities, hired over 1,000 additional workers and operated the port 24 hours a day to cope with this increased traffic. However the local importers were adversely affected because emphasis was put on imports headed for Ethiopia, forcing them to wait one to two weeks for their shipments to be cleared.^[3]

Djibouti port, fishing boat in front of container terminal

A project to improve the port was completed on 18 April 2001 by the United Nations World Food Programme and port authorities. Begun in November 1999, these improvements included a semi-permanent warehouse with a 5,000 metric tons capacity on berth 15, dismantling two obsolete warehouses, and resurfacing of berth 13 to improve access all at a cost of about US$1 million.^[4]

By October 2004, the port had 13 deep-water berths totaling 3,262 m, one container terminal, and three oil jetties. As of 2002^[update], the port traffic was 4 million tons, of which Ethiopia’s transit traffic amounted to about 3.2 million tons; of this total, only about 380,000 tons were exports. Imports consisted of 1.25 million tons of petroleum products and 1.5 million tons dry cargo, half of which consisted of grains and fertilizers. Port infrastructure and facilities were close to capacity in 2004, which led Dubai Ports International, which managed the port for the Djibouti government, to initiate improvements to the port and increase the capacity by one million tons a year.^[5] These improvements included the construction of the Doraleh Container Terminal 11 kilometers from the port, which will feature six Super Post-Panamax container cranes and a berth length of 1050 meters, while handling the equivalent of 1.5 million 20-foot long intermodal containers a year. Completion was scheduled for late 2008.^[6]

Climate

References

Coordinates: 11°35′17″N 43°08′42″E / 11.588°N 43.145°E / 11.588; 43.145

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