The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in 1977. Hassan Gouled APTIDON installed an authoritarian one-party state and proceeded to serve as president until 1999. Unrest among the Afars minority during the 1990s led to a civil war that ended in 2001 following the conclusion of a peace accord between Afar rebels and the Issa-dominated government. In 1999, Djibouti's first multi-party presidential elections resulted in the election of Ismail Omar GUELLEH; he was re-elected to a second and final term in 2005. Djibouti occupies a strategic geographic location at the mouth of the Red Sea and serves as an important transshipment location for goods entering and leaving the east African highlands. The present leadership favors close ties to France, which maintains a significant military presence in the country, but also has strong ties with the US. Djibouti hosts the only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa and is a front-line state in the global war on terrorism. Djibouti sits along some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, at the mouth of the Red Sea, where Africa and Asia nearly touch. Hundreds of millions of dollars of overseas investment is pouring in even though at present the country does not even have a stoplight. Because of its strategic position, both the US and France use its ports for their navies. Dubai World, a large holding company, recently bought a controlling share in a local airline and built an industrial park, new roads and a $200 million, five-star hotel, with gurgling fountains and possibly the greenest lawn in the Horn of Africa. “Djibouti is perfectly positioned to become a services and logistics hub,“ explained Jerome Martins Oliveira, the chief executive officer of the port, which is operated by a subsidiary of Dubai World. .However, Eritrea, Djibouti’s prickly neighbor recently moved more than 1,000 soldiers into a disputed border zone, and Djiboutian officials fear war may break out at any moment. The troops are heavily armed and almost inches apart.