A Djiboutian soldier opened fired and wounded three people, including an entourage of the President.
The incident took place on Monday afternoon at Djibouti International Airport, when President Ismail Omar Guelleh was returning from a regional summit in Addis Ababa.
The shooter is a member of the Republican Guard – an elite-force under the President’s direct command – which has less than a 1000 soldiers tasked with “the safety of the president and his family as well as official guests”.
Djiboutian officials claimed that the shooting took place 5-10 minutes after the President left the airport.
However, the President’s doctor, who had accompanied Guelleh on the trip to Addis Ababa, is among the wounded. The physician, Idris Abdi Gala, was shot three times – two on his chest and one on the head.
Two other – so far unnamed – people had been wounded in the shooting, according to Officials.
The shooter – described as a “young” soldier – was captured immediately after the shooting.
A media analyst, cited on b Somalicurrent.com, claimed that the shooting was motivated by disagreement among the guards.
However, an official of the Communication Ministry, was quoted by AFP as saying that:
“All we know is that this is an isolated act, we do not know what really went on in the head of the shooter,” said Ibrahim Miyir,
Similarly, Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, told Bloomberg that: “An investigation is going on to know what are his motivations and why he targeted the doctor.”
Adding that: “So far we cannot confirm that this incident has anything to do with al-Shabaab or al-Qaeda”. “The result of the inquiry will give us a clearer picture of why this happened.”
President Ismail Omar Guelleh has been ruling the tiny Horn of Africa nation since 1999. The 67 year old President, born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, is said to suffer undisclosed serious illness and to have underwent an operation at a military hospital in Paris last month.
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