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Djibouti

Revision as of 22:35, November 17, 2010 by Wsk (talk | contribs) (expanded)

'Djibouti (Arabic: جيبوتي ‎ Jībūtī), officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the northeast of Africa that forms the Horn of Africa. It has water borders on the southern edge of the Red Sea and on the Gulf of Aden. On the land side, the country is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. It was known as French Somaliland during first half of the twentieth century.

Apparently the area of Djibouti had no significant association with Christianity during antiquity and the early centuries of Christianity. Through close contacts with the adjacent Arabian Peninsula after the establishment of Islam, the Somali and Afar ethnic groups in the region became among the first populations on the continent of Africa to embrace Islam.

The Orthodox Christian adherents in Djibouti today constitute a very small percentage of the population of the country that is largely Muslim. The majority of indigenous Orthodox Christians of Djibouti are members of the non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Chalcedonian Orthodox Christians of Djibouti are under the jurisdiction of the Holy Archdiocese of Aksum of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa.

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