The country is named for its capital, the City of Djibouti. Djibouti is one of most militarised country in the world. The country has military base of more than 10 countries.

The Bab-el-Mandeb region has often been considered a primary crossing point for early human civilization following a southern coastal route from East Africa to South and Southeast Asia.

Djibouti is divided into five administrative regions and one city. The regions are divided into twenty administrative districts. The six administrative regions are Obock, Tadjourah, Dikhil, Arta, Ali Sabieh and Djibouti region.

Djibouti takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the executive power is exercised by the President and the Government. Legislative power is entrusted in both the Government and the National Assembly. The party system and legislature are dominated by the socialist People’s Rally for Progress.

In April 2010, a new constitutional amendment was approved. The President serves as both the head of state and head of government, and is directly elected for single six-year term. Government is headed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the latter. There is also a 65-member chamber of deputies, where representatives are popularly elected for terms of five years. Administratively, the country is divided into five regions and one city, with eleven additional district subdivisions. Djibouti is also part of various international organisations, including the United Nations and Arab League.

The Djibouti area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during this period from the family’s original homeland in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there.

The Kingdom of Adal was centered around Zeila, its capital. It was established by the local Somali tribes in the early 9th century. Zeila attracted mongers from around the world, contributing to the wealth of the city. Zeila is an ancient city and it was one of the earliest cities in the world to embrace Islam shortly after the hijra. Zeila’s two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque.

In the late 9th century, Al-Yakubi an Armenian Muslim scholar and traveler, wrote that the Kingdom of Adal was a small wealthy kingdom and that Zeila served as the headquarters for the kingdom, which dated back to the beginning of the century.

Through close contacts with the adjacent Arabian Peninsula for more than 1,000 years, the Somali and Afar ethnic groups in the region became among the first populations on the continent to embrace Islam. The Ifat Sultanate was a Muslim medieval kingdom in the Horn of Africa.

Ifat Sultanate was founded in 1285 by the Walashma dynasty. It was centered in Zeila. Ifat Sultanate established bases in Djibouti and Somaliland. From there expanded southward to the Ahmar Mountains. Its Sultan Umar Walashma is recorded as having conquered the Sultanate of Shewa in 1285. Taddesse Tamrat explains Sultan Umar’s military enterprise as an effort to consolidate the Muslim territories in the Horn, in much the same way as Emperor Yekuno Amlak was attempting to unite the Christian territories in the highlands during the same period. These two states inevitably came into impingement over Shewa and territories further south. A lengthy war ensued, but the Muslim sultanates of the time were not strongly unified. Ifat Sultanate was finally defeated by Emperor Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia in 1332, and withdrew from Shewa.

After decline of Ifat Sultanate, the Adal Sultanate’s realm encompassed the geographical area between the Bab el Mandeb and Cape Guardafui. It was therefore flanked to the south by the Ajuran Empire and to the west by the Abyssinian Empire. Adal Sultanate is mentioned by name in the 14th century in the context of the battles between the Muslims of the Somali and Afar seaboard and the Abyssinian King Amda Seyon I’s Christian troops. Adal originally had its capital in the port city of Zeila, situated in the western Awdal region. The kingdom at the time was an Emirate in the larger Ifat Sultanate ruled by the Walashma dynasty. Adal’s history from this founding period forth would be individualized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia. At its height, the Adal kingdom ruled large parts of modern-day Djibouti, Somaliland, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Although nominally part of the Ottoman Caliphate since 1577, between 1821 and 1841, Muhammad Ali, Pasha of Egypt, came to control Yemen, Harar, Gulf of Tadjoura with Zeila and Berbera included. The Governor Abu Bakar ordered the Egyptian garrison at Sagallo to retire to Zeila. The cruiser Seignelay reached Sagallo shortly after the Egyptians had departed. French troops captured the fort despite protests from the British Agent in Aden, Major Frederick Mercer Hunter, who despatched troops to safeguard British and Egyptian interests in Zeila and prevent further extension of French influence in that direction.

Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia signed an accord with Great Britain to cease fighting the Egyptians and to allow the evacuation of Egyptian forces from Ethiopia and the Somaliland littoral. The Egyptian garrison was withdrawn from Tadjoura.

The boundaries of the present-day Djibouti state were established as the first French establishment in the Horn of Africa during the Scramble for Africa. On 11 March 1862, the Afar Sultan Raieta Dini Ahmed signed agreement in Paris was a treaty where the Afars sold lands surrounding in Obock.

The French were interested in having a coaling station for steamships, which would become especially important upon the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Later on, that treaty was used by the captain of the Fleuriot de Langle to colonize the south of the Gulf of Tadjoura. On March 26, 1885, the French signed another treaty with the Issas where the latter would become a protectorate under the French, no monetary exchange occurred and Issa clan did not sign away any of their rights to the land, the agreement was to kick the Gadebuursi, who were against the French, and the Isaaq from the country with the help of the French. It was established between 1883 and 1887, after the ruling Somalis and Afar sultans each signed a treaty with the French.

The Republic of Djibouti gained its independence on June 27, 1977. It is the successor to French Somaliland, which was created in the first half of the 19th century as a result of French interest in the Horn of Africa.

Djibouti is in the Horn of Africa, on the Gulf of Aden and the Bab-el-Mandeb, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It is in Djibouti that the rift between the African Plate and the Somali Plate meets the Arabian Plate, forming a geologic tripoint. The tectonic interaction at this tripoint has created the lowest elevation of any place in Africa at Lake Assal, and the second-lowest depression on dry land anywhere on earth.

The country’s coastline stretches 314 kilometres, with terrain consisting mainly of plateau, plains and highlands. Djibouti has a total area of 23,200 square kilometres. Its borders extend 575 km, 125 km of which are shared with Eritrea, 390 km with Ethiopia, and 60 km with Somaliland. Djibouti is the southernmost country on the Arabian Plate.

Djibouti has eight mountain ranges with peaks of over 1,000 metres. The Mousa Ali range is considered the country’s highest mountain range, with the tallest peak on the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea. It has an elevation of 2,028 metres. The Grand Bara desert covers parts of southern Djibouti in the Arta, Ali Sabieh and Dikhil regions. The majority of it sits at a relatively low elevation, below 1,700 feet.

Djibouti’s economy is largely concentrated in the service sector. Commercial activities centres around the country’s free trade policies and strategic location as a Red Sea transit point. Due to scarcity of rainfall, vegetables and fruits are the principal production crops, and other food items require importation. The GDP (purchasing power parity) in 2013 was estimated at $2.505 billion, with a real growth rate of 5% annually. Per capita income is around $2,874 (PPP). The services sector constituted around 79.7% of the GDP, followed by industry at 17.3%, and agriculture at 3%.

Djibouti has a chronic deficiency of educated, technically and professionally trained young men and women to compete for and obtain the jobs that are needed to meet the country’s expanding economic development. 

An unemployment rate of nearly 60% continues to be a major problem.  Djibouti’s dependence on diesel-generated electricity and imported food and water leave average consumers vulnerable to global price shocks.  The government has emphasized infrastructure development for transportation and energy and Djibouti with the help of foreign partners has started to increase and modernize its port capacity. Due to the presence of the port industry, there are a number of opportunities for employment in that sector, as well as in related areas. However, due to dearth of workforce readiness, many of the jobs are either filled by foreigners or remain unfilled.