| Abstract |
Bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, the economically underdeveloped Republic of Djibouti gained its independence on June 27, 1977 from the former territory of the French Somaliland (later called the French Territory of the Afars and Issas), which was created in the first half of the 19th Century as a result of French interest in the Horn of Africa. It is a 23,200 km2 coastal dryland ecosystem-nation without any perennial rivers, generally described as a drab and hot desert-type landscape of ochre-colored geomorphology situated near the Bab-al-Mandab Strait, international shipping’s southernmost Red Sea entrance/exit. |