A former adviser to Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said Tuesday he will run against him in April elections, denouncing “democratic backsliding” in the small but highly strategic Horn of Africa nation.Djibouti has been ruled with an iron fist since 1999 by 77-year-old Guelleh, known as “IOG”, with the removal of a constitutional age limit last month allowing him to run again for a sixth term.But Alexis Mohamed, a longtime adviser and spokesman for the president internationally, said his then-boss had gone too far and resigned in September, accusing Guelleh Tuesday of creating a “presidency for life”.”I hereby officially announce my candidacy for the presidency of the Republic of Djibouti,” Mohamed said in a statement sent to AFP, adding he intended to “conduct this campaign in Djibouti in peace, security and respect for republican rules, if the indispensable guarantees for a free and fair vote are indeed in place.”Mohamed, who is currently abroad, called for the safety of all candidates to be guaranteed.Guelleh was re-elected with more than 97 percent of the vote in the last presidential election in April 2021 in a poll boycotted by the opposition.He has turned the tiny, arid former French colony of around one million people into a reliable international military and maritime hub for both the United States and China.It is also home to French and Japanese military bases.But Djibouti is regularly singled out by human rights organisations for its repression of dissenting voices, ranking 168th out of 180 in the 2025 press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).Mohamed served for 10 years as an adviser to the president, defending the government’s positions, but has now criticised the government’s “patronage-based management of the state”.Djibouti faces Yemen across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which provides access to the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and through which a large portion of global trade between Asia and the West passes.
