Following independence, the country's first president Hassan Gouled Aptiodon, installed a Issas led one-party state and he continued to rule until his retirement in 1999 when his nephew, Ismail Omar Guelleh, assumed office.

Afar unrest was prevalent during the 1990s and has been described as civil war, however a peace treaty was signed in 2000 and since then there have been multi-party elections, even if the incumbent president, Aptiodon's nephew Ismail Omar Guelleh, was re-elected for his fifth five-year term in 2021 with 97.30% of the vote!

Despite its location next to the sea, Djibouti is little visited by tourists, except for the French with their colonial ties, however it is used a military base for eight overseas nations, bringing important revenue into the country, where unemployment is estimated to be between 40-50%. For example, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Support Base has recently been completed in Djibouti having been built at a cost of US$590 million.

Such external revenue is required as Djibouti has few natural resources and insufficient rainfall and arable land (most of the country is a stony desert) to feed itself, having to import most foodstuffs, with the country coming in at 171st place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country. Djibouti has a low life expectancy of 62.30 years (2021).