Djibouti Armed Forces

Military of Djibouti
Emblem of the Djiboutian Armed Force
Motto	Guul ama Dhimasho
Founded	6 June 1977 (39 years)
Service branches	Army Air Force Navy Gendarmerie
Leadership
Commander in Chief	President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh
Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff	General Zakaria Cheikh Ibrahim
Manpower
Military age	18–49 years old
Available for military service	391,797, age 18–49 (2010 est.)
Fit for military service	268,730, age 18–49 (2010 est.)
Reaching military age annually	(2010 est.)
Active personnel	16,000 Active Personnel (2016 est.)
Reserve personnel	9,500 (2016 est.)
Deployed personnel	Somalia - 2,000  Sudan - 151 Police
Expenditures
Budget	$36.90 million (2011 est.)
Percent of GDP	3.7% (2011 est.)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	United States  France  Japan  Italy  China
Related articles
History	Military history of Djibouti: Djiboutian Civil War Djiboutian–Eritrean border conflict United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur African Union Mission to Somalia

Military history of Djibouti:

The Djibouti Armed Forces (DJAF) (Somali: Ciidanka Jabuuti) are the military forces of Djibouti. They consist of the Djibouti National Army and its sub-branches the Djibouti Air Force and Djiboutian Navy. As of 2013, the Djibouti Armed Forces consists of 16,000 (2016 est.) ground troops, which are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. Djibouti Armed Forces are an important player in the Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea.

In 2015 General Zakaria Chiek Imbrahim was chief d'etat-major general (chief of staff) of the Forces Armees Djiboutiennes. He assumed command in November 2013.

Historically, Somali society accorded prestige to the warrior (waranle) and rewarded military prowess. Except for a man of religion (wadaad), and they were few in number, all Somali males were considered potential warriors. Djibouti's many Sultanates each maintained regular troops. In the early Middle Ages, the conquest of Shewa by the Ifat Sultanate ignited a rivalry for supremacy with the Solomonic Dynasty.

Many similar battles were fought between the succeeding Sultanate of Adal and the Solomonids, with both sides achieving victory and suffering defeat. During the protracted Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1559), Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi defeated several Ethiopian Emperors and embarked on a conquest referred to as the Futuh Al-Habash ("Conquest of Abyssinia"), which brought three-quarters of Christian Abyssinia under the power of the Muslim Adal Sultanate. Al-Ghazi's forces and their Ottoman allies came close to extinguishing the ancient Ethiopian kingdom, but the Abyssinians managed to secure the assistance of Cristóvão da Gama's Portuguese troops and maintain their domain's autonomy. However, both polities in the process exhausted their resources and manpower, which resulted in the contraction of both powers and changed regional dynamics for centuries to come.