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Djibouti is a small republic just north of the Horn of Africa on the strait of Bab el-Mandeb. It shares a border with Ethiopia and Somalia (or actually, since 1991, with Somaliland, a de facto independent republic, the successor state of the former British Somaliland protectorate). The country is 90% volcanic desert and minor mountain ranges extend from the coastal plain to the Ethiopian highlands: Moussa Ali, the highest point in the country on the borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea, rises to 2063 m. The coastline is deeply indented by the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti is one of the hottest places on Earth, with an average annual temperature of nearly 32 degrees Celcius. The average annual rainfall is less than 125 mm, and vegetation is sparse.

The population is roughly divided between two groups: the Afars (formerly called Danakil) of the north and the Somali-speaking Issas of the south. Both are Muslim, and both were traditionally pastoral nomads. Tensions between the Afar and Issa was the cause of the civil war (also known as the Afar insurgency) in the early 1990s. The Arabian peninsula is only 20 km away (Yemen) and there has been close contacts for more than 1000 years; the Afar and Somali tribes in this region were among the first on the African continent to accept Islam. Djibouti also has an Arab trading community and a substantial French presence.

French interest developed in the nineteenth century when the area was ruled by the sultan of Raheita, Tadjoura and Gobaad. The French purchased the anchorage of Obock in 1862 and expanded it until in 1884 it was declared a colony called French Somaliland with essentially the current boundaries. In 1967 the country became the French overseas territory of the Afars and the Issas. Ten years later it gained its independence from France as the Republic of Djibouti, on 27 June 1977. Although Somali and Afar are widely spoken, French and Arabic are the official languages.