Ismail Omar Guelleh re-elected as Djibouti president: provisional results

Djibouti's incumbent President Ismail Omar Guelleh was re-elected for a sixth term with 97.81 percent of the vote, according to the provisional results released on Saturday.

The Ministry of Interior announced on Saturday morning that Guelleh defeated his opponent, Mohamed Farah Samatar, presidential candidate for the Unified Democratic Center, who won 2.19 percent of the vote in Friday's presidential election.

Guelleh, 78, declared victory in a social media post a few hours ahead of the official results, after early results gave him a huge lead.

Djibouti, a small country at the mouth of the Horn of Africa, is a major hub for international commerce and a key partner in the fight against sea piracy and transnational terrorism.

The Red Sea nation, with a population of about 1 million, is also the main foreign trade outlet for neighboring landlocked Ethiopia