Was Djibouti Saved by the Wisdom of Late Egal?
It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that Djibouti’s decision to go solo in order to preserve its sovereignty and statehood was motivated by the treatment Somaliland experienced from the union that sought “Greater Somalia” on July 1, 1960.
In addition to believing that Djibouti is aware of how the union is being abused, the people of Somaliland also issued a stark warning to avoid joining it.
Now, Djibouti is obliged to repay that favor to the people of Somaliland by abandoning anything that could be a threat to Somaliland existence or impede its objectives at least, if it does not want to be one of the forces propelling its ambition.
Late Prime Minister Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic sent a secret letter to late President Al-Haji Hassan Guled of Djibouti. This task was delegated to the Somali Republic police General Jamac Mohamed Qalib known as Jamac Yare. It was smuggled to Djibouti by none other than Ciise Gabobeh himself who was a Djiboutian national of Somaliland origins.
This incident occurred in 1968 shorty before PM Egal’s departure to America and Western Europe including France where he met the then French President Charles DeGaule. It is not confirmed to date about what the two heads of states discussed during their meeting in Paris. However, Egal mentioned once in an speech that he discussed Djibouti’s independence with the French president during his presidency of Somaliland in the mid 1990s
In the summer of 1966 DeGaule visited Djibouti where he stayed for a short period. He tried to convince the Somalis and Afars people to not seek independence from France at the moment in his problematic speech at the La Gare station near downtown Djibouti City. Few minutes later, the outraged public stoned the French guards and the situation got out of hands. Many innocent civilians were shot by the guards.
Few months later in March of 1967, Djibouti had an rigged independence referendum conducted by the colonial power where the results of the voting were flipped towards no independence. Another problem suddenly erupted and the entire city was burning by the civilian protesters. Several people were detained, tortured, and killed during a the violent clashes.
Among the severely tortured and killed was Abdirahman Adholeh who was an opposition and freedom fighter. The French killed him by mutilating his body in a nasty way and then dragged his lifeless corpse tied to an army jeep in the streets of the downtown area to terrorize the protesters.
Nevertheless, the secret letter of PM Egal contained highly sensitive information about the future of Djibouti Perhaps, it was a warning but it certainly influenced LPAI or RPP party of President Hassan Guled to form its own republic rather than merging with Somalia post independence from colonial power or France at the time.