Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame called Djibouti’s Ismaïl Omar Guelleh on Saturday to congratulate him on winning a sixth presidential term, signaling Kigali’s intention to keep one of its most active bilateral relationships firmly in motion.
Guelleh, 78, was reelected after official results showed him winning 97.81% of the vote in Friday’s election , extending a grip on power he has held since 1999.
In a post on X, Kagame said he looked forward to “deepening the strong, longstanding ties between the people of Djibouti and Rwanda” and working together to advance shared priorities for growth and prosperity.
The call came just hours after results were confirmed.
The phone call is not just diplomatic courtesy, it lands on the back of serious institutional groundwork.
In November 2025, Djibouti and Rwanda signed nine new cooperation instruments, including four agreements and five memorandums of understanding, at the conclusion of their Second Joint Ministerial Commission in Djibouti City .
The session covered trade, justice, energy, defence, and the promotion of women’s and children’s rights.
That followed a first Joint Ministerial Commission held in Kigali in May 2023, where the two countries signed three MoUs covering diplomatic training, agriculture, and tourism .
In under three years, the bilateral agenda has moved from handshakes to hard commitments.
For Rwanda, Djibouti is not just a friendship, it is a strategic asset. Djibouti hosts multiple foreign military bases, including those of the U.S., China, France, and Japan, and sits along a key global shipping route linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden .
That positioning makes it one of the most consequential small states on the continent. For a landlocked, trade-focused economy like Rwanda’s, building political capital with the country controlling one of Africa’s busiest ports is a calculated move, not a coincidence.
With Guelleh now confirmed for another five-year term, the two governments will likely move quickly to activate the agreements signed in November 2025.
Voter turnout in Friday’s election was recorded at 80.33% , lending the result a degree of procedural legitimacy even as analysts noted Guelleh faced a single challenger and opposition groups have long cited restrictions on political freedoms .
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