Aden Robleh Awaleh

Who is Aden Robleh Awaleh?

Aden Robleh Awaleh is a Djiboutian politician and President of the National Democratic Party. He is currently a member of the National Assembly of Djibouti.

Awaleh, an Issa, was born in Ali-Sabieh. Opposing French colonial rule in Djibouti, he went to Somalia in 1969 and became the leader of the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast. As a result of his activities, he was convicted of "endangering state security" in absentia by the French authorities in 1970 and sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was later arrested in Somalia in 1975 for "anti-revolutionary" activities and spent a year in solitary confinement there. He was attacked and injured on June 24, 1977, three days before Djibouti became independent from France; his injuries caused him to be hospitalized for a year.

In the period following independence, he was a member of the government, Vice-President of the Popular Rally for Progress ruling party, and a member of the RPR Political Bureau. He was included in the first post-independence government, named on July 15, 1977, as Minister of the Port, and he was subsequently moved to the position of Minister of Commerce, Transport, and Tourism in 1978.