President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh has named Aden Ali Mahamade, a former ambassador to Eritrea, as defence minister, filling a post held on an interim basis since the death of Hassan Omar Mohamed Bourhan in July.
Djibouti's President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh appointed Aden Ali Mahamade as minister of defence on Thursday 5 November by a decree taking immediate effect, the state news agency ADI reported. The presidency described him as a diplomat with long experience who had served as director of international cooperation and as Djibouti's ambassador to Eritrea, TRT Afrika reported.
The post had been vacant since the death of Hassan Omar Mohamed Bourhan, who died in France on 16 July while receiving medical treatment. Bourhan had been minister of defence since 2019 and was earlier interior minister. Since his death, Interior Minister Omar Abdi Saïd had held the defence portfolio on an interim basis, LSI Africa reported. Omar Abdi Saïd co-chaired, as acting defence minister, Djibouti's security and defence talks with the EU Political and Security Committee on 4 November.
A diplomat at defence
According to LSI Africa, Mahamade comes from Tadjourah and studied in France, including a master's degree in economics and international relations. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993, served as a counsellor at Djibouti's embassy in Paris, and was director of international cooperation from 2006 to 2012 before being posted to Eritrea from 2012. During the 2026 presidential election he led the campaign of the ruling Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) in the Tadjourah region.
No reason for the timing of the appointment was given, and no wider cabinet change was announced. The ministry oversees military policy and defence cooperation at a time when Djibouti, beside the Bab el-Mandeb strait, hosts foreign military bases and is managing several security partnerships. France handed 40 per cent of its Heron naval base back to Djibouti's armed forces on 2 November, and the EU committee discussed Red Sea security and the ATALANTA and ASPIDES naval missions during its visit.
Mahamade's posting in Asmara also gives him direct experience of Eritrea, with which Djibouti has had a long-running border dispute, at a time of high tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Image: The presidential palace in Djibouti City, seen across the port. Keo the Younger, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.