Presidential doctor wounded in Djibouti shooting, president unhurt

DJIBOUTI — Djibouti's president was unhurt when a member of the Republican Guard shot and wounded his doctor and at least one other person at the airport of the Red Sea nation after the presidential party had flown in, officials said on Tuesday.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who was returning from a meeting in Ethiopia, had left the airport shortly before the shooting took place on Monday afternoon, they said.

The Republic Guard said in a statement that one of its soldiers had "suddenly opened fire" injuring two people, including a Republican Guard doctor. It gave no motive for the attack but said an investigation had been launched.

There was no immediate suggestion of a political motive for the shooting.

A spokesman for the guard said three people had been injured in the incident. He said the doctor was the president's physician and had accompanied Guelleh on his trip to Addis Ababa.

A former French colony, Djibouti hosts a French military base and the only US military base in Africa. Its port is used by foreign navies policing the Gulf of Aden's shipping lanes, some of the busiest in the world, against pirates from Somalia, which borders the country to the south.