| Dileita Mohamed Dileita | |
| Office: | President of the National Assembly |
| Term Start: | 5 March 2023 |
| Predecessor: | Mohamed Ali Houmed |
| Office2: | African Union Special Envoy for Libya |
| Term Start2: | 11 June 2014 |
| Office1: | 5th Prime Minister of Djibouti |
| President1: | Ismaïl Omar Guelleh |
| Term Start1: | 7 March 2001 |
| Term End1: | 1 April 2013 |
| Predecessor1: | Barkat Gourad Hamadou |
| Successor1: | Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed |
| Birth Date: | 12 March 1959 |
| Birth Place: | Tadjoura, French Somaliland (now Djibouti) |
| Party: | People's Rally for Progress |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
Dileita Mohamed Dileita (Afar: Dileita Macammad Dileita, Arabic: دليطة محمد دليطة; born 12 March 1959[1] [2]) is a Djiboutian politician who was the prime minister of Djibouti from 7 March 2001 to 1 April 2013.[3] [4] He was vice-president of the People's Rally for Progress (RPP), the governing political party, until 2012. He also served as president of the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP), the governing coalition.[5] He was elected President of the National Assembly on 5 March 2023.[6]
Dileita was born in 1959 in the coastal eastern city of Tadjoura, Djibouti, to an Afar family.[7] He studied in Cairo[1] [4] and Reims, then went to the Centre for Vocational Education in Médéa, Algeria, from which he graduated in 1981.[1]
Upon graduation, Dileita returned to Djibouti, where he worked at the Directorate-General of Protocol under the Presidency. He became the second ranking diplomat at the embassy of Djibouti in France in early 1990,[4] and subsequently he became Ambassador to Ethiopia[1] [4] in 1997. He also represented Djibouti at the Organization of African Unity, headquartered in Addis Ababa, while serving as Ambassador to Ethiopia, and assisted in the peace talks that ended the 1998 - 2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.[1]
In December 1999, Dileita was charged with negotiating a peace agreement with a faction of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD); the negotiations led to the signing of an agreement in February 2000.[4] He became ambassador to Uganda in mid-2000.[8] After long-time prime minister Barkat Gourad Hamadou resigned for health reasons in February 2001,[1] [9] President Ismail Omar Guelleh appointed Dileita as prime minister on March 4, 2001,[3] [4] [10] and he took office on March 7.[3] He had no prior experience as a minister.[10]
Dileita was elected as the vice-president of the RPP on July 3, 2003, succeeding Hamadou in that post.[11] Dileita led the ruling coalition, the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP), in the January 2003 parliamentary election,[12] standing as the first candidate on the coalition's list for the District of Djibouti.[13]
On May 21, 2005, Dileita was reappointed as prime minister[14] after Guelleh's re-election in the April 2005 presidential election;[15] a new government under Dileita was named on May 22.[16]
As of 2008, Dileita was the president of the UMP coalition,[17] and he headed the UMP list[18] [19] [20] for the District of Djibouti in the February 2008 parliamentary election.[20] Following the election, in which the UMP won all seats amidst an opposition boycott, he resigned as Prime Minister on March 25, 2008.[15] Guelleh promptly reappointed him on March 26[21] [22] and named a new government under Dileita on March 27.[21] [23]
After Guelleh won a third term in the April 2011 presidential election, he reappointed Dileita as Prime Minister on 11 May 2011. Guelleh retained Dileita in his post even though various other long-serving ministers were dropped from the new government that was announced on 12 May.[24] He was replaced as RPP Vice-president by Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed in September 2012, as part of an extensive shake-up of the RPP leadership.[25]
On 31 March 2013, Dileita was succeeded by Kamil as Prime Minister.[26]
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, announced on 11 June 2014 that Dileita was appointed as the African Union's Special Envoy for Libya.[27] He was head of the African Union observer mission for the March 2016 Congolese presidential election.[28]