Afaria

The transitional government in Ethiopia has been concerned that FRUD could link with the older Afar Liberation Front (ALF) in Ethiopia and Eritrea with its dream of a separate "Afaria".

The outbreak of ethnic violence in 1991 severely strained Djiboutian-French Relations. Paris, which had deployed troops in March to disarm Ethiopian soldiers fleeing into Djibouti, dismissed the government's claims that Ethiopian Afars were seeking to establish a “greater Afaria” and in October ordered its troops to remain in their barracks.

For instance, in the Afaria region of Ethiopia (Afaria is situated close to Ethiopia-Somalia and Ethiopia-Kenya borders) there is a sustained standoff between tigrai-amhara organizations (Tigrai Liberation National Front and Afar Liberation Front).