Djibouti says couple that bombed restaurant were probably Somali

The Djibouti restaurant where the attack took place. Photo: @Horn_News/Twitter

At least two people have been killed after two blasts struck a busy restaurant in down town Djibouti, police said.

The blasts at La Chaumiere restaurant, popular with Western tourists, wounded 11 other people according to Reuters news agency. Members of the Armed Forces of Malta were said to have been near the same site of the attack on Saturday, while in transit to Somalia on an anti-piracy mission with Dutch colleagues.

An army spokesperson could not confirm whether the soldiers were at the same restaurant.

The French foreign ministry confirmed that several of its nationals were slightly wounded in the attack, and the Netherlands’ De Telegraaf reported that six Dutch soldiers who had been taking part in an anti-piracy mission were also lightly wounded.

 “It’s a criminal act. We have two people dead and 11 wounded. It was grenades,” Colonel Omar Hassan, head of police in Djibouti city, told Reuters.

Djibouti has the United States’ only military base in Africa, where drones are operated from. Earlier this month the US signed a $63m a year 10-year lease for the base known as Camp Lemonnier.

The tiny East African country has also contributed troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia. 

The former French colony’s port is also used by foreign navies protecting the Gulf of Aden’s shipping lanes, some of the busiest in the world, from Somali pirates.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted on Saturday saying that the 21 AFM personnel had been unharmed in the attack and safely transported to the Dutch frigate HNLMS De Zeven Provenciën. On Monday 19 May, the frigate joined EU naval force Somalia Operation Atalanta, where the naval force is conducting an anti-piracy mission.

In a statement on Twitter, Djibouti’s Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh said the country must “remain united in the face of such barbaric acts”.

Somali troops and AMISOM, comprising troops from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Djibouti, drove al Shabaab out of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in 2011.

On Saturday, al Shabaab attacked the parliament in Somalia, killing at least 10 security officers.