Aden Robleh Awaleh

Aden Robleh Awaleh (born 1941-31 October 2014) is a Djiboutian politician and President of the National Democratic Party (PND). He is currently a member of the National Assembly of Djibouti.

Awaleh, an Issa, was born in Ali-Sabieh. Opposing French colonial rule in Djibouti, he went to Somalia in 1969 and became the leader of the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast (FLCS). As a result of his activities, he was convicted of "endangering state security" in absentia by the French authorities in 1970 and sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was later arrested in Somalia in 1975 for "anti-revolutionary" activities and spent a year in solitary confinement there. He was attacked and injured on June 24, 1977, three days before Djibouti became independent from France; his injuries caused him to be hospitalized for a year.

In the period following independence, he was a member of the government, Vice-President of the Popular Rally for Progress (RPR) ruling party, and a member of the RPR Political Bureau. He was included in the first post-independence government, named on July 15, 1977, as Minister of the Port, and he was subsequently moved to the position of Minister of Commerce, Transport, and Tourism in 1978. He was also elected to the National Assembly in 1982. In 1983, he denounced the authoritarianism of the RPR's single-party regime and resigned from his government and party positions.

A book written by Awaleh, Djibouti: Key to the Red Sea (Djibouti Clef de la Mer Rouge), was published in February 1986. He clandestinely left Djibouti in May 1986 and went into exile in France. As an exiled opposition leader, he founded the Djiboutian National Movement for the Establishment of Democracy and the Union of Democratic Movements while in France. In Djibouti, he was accused of "attempting to destabilize the government and murder senior officials" and was sentenced in absentia to life in prison on September 7, 1986, along with two others.

In 1992, Awaleh founded the National Democratic Party (PND) in Paris. Immediately after a successful referendum was held on the introduction of multiparty politics, Awaleh announced on September 7, 1992 that he intended to return to Djibouti within days and would seek the legalization of his National Democratic Party (PND). The PND was then established in Djibouti on September 13, 1992. He received 12% of the vote in the May 1993 presidential election, placing third; along with the other opposition candidates, he denounced the election as fraudulent.

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