Djibouti's security forces executed a drone strike near the Ethiopian border, killing eight members of what it calls a terrorist group and harming an unspecified number of civilians, officials said on Sunday.
"A drone attack was carried out against a terrorist group at Addorta, a Djiboutian locality some six kilometers from the border with Ethiopia," a statement from the Djibouti defense ministry said.
The statement said that the defense ministry confirmed that "eight terrorists were neutralized," but also noted that "collateral damage was unfortunately reported among Djiboutian civilians," without providing further details.
In comments to AFP, Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to President Ismael Omar Guelleh, identified the militants as members of the Armed Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy, or FRUDA, which Djibouti classifies as a terrorist organization.
The government said the group was involved in "hostile actions" that posed "a potential threat to our advanced posts."
An Ethiopian newspaper, the Addis Standard, reported that the drone strike occurred on Ethiopian territory — an assertion Djibouti rejected. Mohamed maintained that the attack took place within Djibouti's borders.
Djibouti security officials did not respond to requests from VOA Somali to provide further details regarding the incident.
In October 2022, an attack on barracks at Garabtisan, in the north of Djibouti, resulted in the deaths of seven soldiers and the kidnapping of six others.
Officials in Djibouti blamed the attack on FRUD, the political arm of FRUDA. The abducted soldiers were released several weeks later.
In 1991, FRUD, which originated in the Afar community in northern Djibouti, launched an anti-government insurgency, claiming to represent Afar interests against the Issas, the other major ethnic group in the tiny Horn of Africa country.
Later, the group broke up, joining a four-party coalition that backs President Guelleh, but its armed wing, called FRUDA, has continued to carry out attacks against government forces.
Several countries, including the United States and China, have military installations in Djibouti. The country sits on the west side of the Bab El Mandeb Strait, in East Africa. along one of the world's busiest maritime routes where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
Djibouti’s news comes two days after U.S. aircraft took aim at the Islamic State affiliate in neighboring Somalia, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group's mountainous stronghold.
Ramadan Jama contributed to this report.
