NAIROBI, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund has approved a 20-million-dollar (14-million-euro) loan to war-battered Djibouti, a statement said late Thursday.

Six million dollars will be disbursed immediately to cushion the Horn of Africa nation against the food and oil price shocks.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - The African Union demanded Monday that Eritrea immediately withdraw its troops from a border area in dispute with Djibouti.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - The African Union demanded Monday that Eritrea immediately withdraw its troops from a border area in dispute with Djibouti.

DJIBOUTI, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - The Somali government and its main political foes Monday signed a cessation of hostilities accord at the United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Djibouti, a UN spokeswoman said.

'They have signed the cessation of hostilities agreement among others agreements,' said Susannah Price, the spokeswoman for the top UN envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.

DJIBOUTI, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at bringing the Somali government and its main political foes into direct dialogue have hit problems, an official said Monday.

'The talks are going on but they are not looking very good,' said an official at the talks who asked not to be named owing to the sensitivity of the matter.

THE HAGUE, June 4, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's highest court ruled Wednesday that France was not obliged to share with Djibouti information gathered in its probe into the alleged 1995 murder of a French judge in the East African state.

BONN, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations must urgently send peacekeepers to Somalia and enforce a ceasefire if lasting peace is to be restored in the shattered African nation, a former mediator said on Tuesday.

DJIBOUTI, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Somalia's Islamist opposition Monday said a timetable for Ethiopian troop withdrawal was a condition for direct government talks -- while the Somali president said a pull-out required a UN deployment.

THE HAGUE, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A years-long quarrel between Djibouti and France over the alleged 1995 murder of a French judge in the East African state comes to a head at the International Court of Justice on Wednesday.

DJIBOUTI, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Somalia's president told a UN Security Council mission Monday that the United Nations must deploy peacekeepers in his insurgency-racked nation before Ethiopian troops can withdraw.

DJIBOUTI, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A UN Security Council team arrived in Djibouti on Monday for talks on Somalia's 17-year-old conflict a day after President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped an attack on his plane.

The delegation, led by South Africa's UN ambassador Dumisani Kumalo and his British counterpart John Sawers, was to meet government represantatives and exiled opposition officials.

DJIBOUTI, May 31, 2008 (AFP) - Negotiations sponsored by the United Nations and aimed at bringing the Somali government and its main political foes into direct dialogue were due to resume Saturday in Djibouti.

NAIROBI, May 19, 2008 (AFP) - Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki on Monday denied there is a frontier stand-off with neighbouring Djibouti even though tensions between the two have grown in recent weeks.

Djibouti has accused Eritrean military forces of digging trenches on their common border and infiltrating Djiboutian territory.

ADDIS ABABA, May 12, 2008 (AFP) - Ethiopia said Monday it has the means to secure its vital trade corridor with the Gulf of Aden in the event of conflict between Djibouti and Eritrea.

ADDIS ABABA, May 9, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said his army is in a dangerous border stand-off with neighbouring Eritrea's military, according to a release issued Friday.

'There is a hostile action which poses real problems because it is a blatant violation of our territorial integrity, of our borders,' the president said in the statement.

UNITED NATIONS, May 6, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti has called on the UN Security Council to intervene to prevent a border conflict with neighboring Eritrea, according to a letter from its foreign minister seen here Tuesday.

'We call on the Council to deploy urgently all necessary measures toward preventing yet another conflict,' Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said.

CAIRO, May 4, 2008 (AFP) - The Arab League's Peace and Security Council on Sunday called on Djibouti and Eritrea to resolve their border crisis peacefully and to avoid any act that could lead to an escalation.

ADDIS ABABA, May 2, 2008 (AFP) - The African Union's Peace and Security Council on Friday urged Horn of Africa rivals Djibouti and Eritrea to show restraint as they seek to resolve a border crisis.

ADDIS ABABA, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - Ethiopia and Djibouti on Wednesday each announced urgent measures to alleviate the effects of the global food crisis on their populations.

ADDIS ABABA, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - The Somali government is due to hold ice-breaking talks with Asmara-based opposition leaders in neighbouring Djibouti next month, Ethiopia's foreign ministry said Friday.

The first talks between the transitional government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia are due to start on May 10,' a ministry statement said.

NAIROBI, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - Eritrea on Friday denied accusations that its troops had crossed the border into neighbouring Djibouti and begun building defences.

'We are baffled by the accusations from Djibouti,' an official close to Eritrean president told AFP.

DJIBOUTI, April 24, 2008 (AFP) - Moses once parted the Red Sea ... now Osama bin Laden's half-brother is planning to build a bridge over it.

DJIBOUTI, April 22, 2008 (AFP) - Military leaders from Eritrea and Djibouti will meet on Thursday to iron out a dispute over what Djiboutian authorities claim was an Eritrean incursion on their territory.

ADDIS ABABA, April 21, 2008 (AFP) - Eritrean soldiers have crossed the border into Djibouti and begun building defences, Djiboutian officials said Monday.

'Eritrean soldiers made an incursion into Djibouti territory two or three days ago in the Ras Doumeira area,' an official who did not want to be identified said in a telephone interview.

PARIS, April 14, 2008 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday welcomed the crew of a French yacht held hostage held for a week by Somali pirates, as they arrived back in France.

And the Paris prosecutor's office announced it had opened a preliminary investigation into hijacking and kidnapping after the pirates' capture of the yacht, Le Ponant, off the Somali coast.

DJIBOUTI, April 14, 2008 (AFP) - The crew of a luxury yacht held for a week by Somali pirates was headed Monday to Paris, where President Nicolas Sarkozy was scheduled to welcome them.

The former hostages were transferred in French helicopters to Djibouti, where France has its largest overseas military base, an AFP correspondent reported.

PARIS, April 13, 2008 (AFP) - Hostages released from a luxury yacht told Sunday how they turned hoses on rifle-wielding pirates in a desperate bid to repel them before being captured and held for a week off the Somali coast.

PARIS, April 13, 2008 (AFP) - The crew of a luxury French yacht freed after being held hostage for a week by Somali pirates are due to arrive in Paris late on Monday, the French military said Sunday.

PARIS, April 12, 2008 (AFP) - France's defence minister warned Saturday it would not tolerate extortion attempts, after 30 hostages were freed from a luxury boat off Somalia and a French military operation against pirates who had held them.

DJIBOUTI, April 7, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti on Monday issued international arrest warrants for five French nationals, two of whom held senior positions in the Horn of Africa nation, for sexually abusing children, an investigator said.

DJIBOUTI, March 29, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti lashed back Saturday at former colonial power France after a French court sentenced two close aides of President Ismael Omar Guelleh to jail terms in absentia for bribing witnesses in a probe into the 1995 murder of a French judge.

VERSAILLES, France, March 27, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti's attorney general and secret service chief were sentenced to jail terms in absentia by a French court Thursday for bribing witnesses in a probe into the 1995 murder of a French judge.

DJIBOUTI, Feb 9, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti's ruling coalition took all 65 seats in parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition, the interior minister said Saturday, adding that turnout exceeded 72 percent, the highest for 15 years.

The opposition labelled Friday's exercise a 'charade' and said the announced turnout was far from the reality.

DJIBOUTI, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - The poor but strategically important Red Sea state of Djibouti held a parliamentary election Friday with opposition parties boycotting the poll assailing it as undemocratic.

Only 65 candidates from a coalition loyal to President Ismael Omar Guelleh are running for the 65 seats in the legislature, and many voters have not bothered to register.

DJIBOUTI, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - Poor but strategically important Djibouti holds elections to parliament on Friday despite a boycott called by opposition parties who have assailed the polls as undemocratic.

Only 65 candidates from a coalition loyal to President Ismael Omar Guelleh are running for the 65 seats in the legislature, and many voters have not bothered to register.

DJIBOUTI, Feb 2, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti's three main opposition parties called Saturday on voters to boycott parliamentary elections on February 8, branding the exercise a farce.

Ismail Guedi Hared, head of the three-party coalition, the Union for a Democratic Alternative (UAD), said the vote had been designed by the ruling party for the ruling party.

THE HAGUE, Jan 24, 2008 (AFP) - France on Thursady rejected Djibouti's complaints to the International Court of Justice that it had refused to share details of an investigation into the alleged 1995 murder of a French judge.

THE HAGUE, Jan 21, 2008 (AFP) - Djibouti accused former colonial ruler France at the International Court of Justice Monday of having refused to share information in its investigation of the alleged 1995 murder of a French judge.