Speculations on the state of health president of Djibouti have not ceased in the country even after the return of Ismail Omar Guelleh on September 20, coming back from Paris where he seems to have undergone some medical treatment.
Although the office of the Presidency of the Republic has denied hospitalization, speaking only of a vacation to rest after a period of intense overwork, the comments of Djiboutians on social media are to the contrary, supporting the evidence of hospitalization and the possibility of medical treatment.
On September 23, President Guelleh spoke with a videotaped message at the opening of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, emphasizing in his speech the issues of climate change, the challenge posed by the pandemic and the instability of the Horn of Africa region, especially with reference to Ethiopia and Somalia.
Particularly tense at this stage are relations with Somalia, especially after what has been reported as the arrest in Djibouti of the former head of Mogadishu’s intelligence service, Fahad Yasin. The local government has denied having arrested the former Somali intelligence chief, claiming that all passengers on the Turkish Airlines flight on which Yasin was traveling – and which had been stopped in Djibouti – have since reached their final destination in Istanbul. The former Somali intelligence chief then returned to Mogadishu on September 22 aboard a private jet belonging to Turkish intelligence NISA.
