Djibouti explosion kills four children in Afar; NGO alleges drone strike, probe underway

Four children were killed in southern Djibouti in an explosion, authorities said late Tuesday, with a human rights group saying it was a drone strike.

The children died in an explosion in the Dhikil region in Afar, public prosecutor Hassan Mohamed Hassan said in a statement, calling it a tragic event.

Afar's community feels marginalised by President Ismail Omar Guelleh, a member of the majority Issa community, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1999.


"Two children, aged six and seven (a girl and a boy), were killed at the scene, and on Tuesday two others succumbed to their injuries due to a lack of evacuation and medical care," the Djiboutian League for Human Rights (LDDH) said in a press release.

The LDDH said the children were tending livestock when the incident took place and that six others were wounded, one seriously.

It noted this is the "sixth drone attack in this region against nomadic populations in the space of six months".

A team has been deployed to the scene to determine the cause of the explosion, prosecutor Hassan added.

It follows an incident in February last year, when authorities claimed to have launched a drone attack near the border with Ethiopia, which killed eight members of a rebel group, as well as an unknown number of civilians.

The head of state of the small Horn of Africa nation is running for a sixth term in the presidential election on April 10.