Mr Aboubaker Hassan is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research of the Republic of Djibouti. He is an engineer with training in hydraulics (ENSEEIHT Toulouse) and geophysics (DESS from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). He also holds a postgraduate degree in business strategy (IAE Paris I).
He began his career in 1995 at the Office National des Eaux in Djibouti as head of the technical service, where he supervised all production and distribution of drinking water in the capital. Appointed as technical adviser to the general manager in 1999, he was entrusted with large-scale study projects such as long conveyances (200km) and seawater desalination.
In 2011, he was appointed Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This ministry supervises three autonomous establishments: the University of Djibouti, the Center for Studies and Research of Djibouti and the Institute Superior of Health Sciences. In addition to his administrative functions within the ministry, he chaired the board of directors of the faculty of medicine till 2015, the higher institute of health sciences since 2022, while since 2012, he has been the president of the National Scholarship Commission.
In 2016, he was awarded the rank of Chevalier in the Order of Academic Palms by the French Republic. In 2019, he was entrusted with the project for the professionalisation and digitisation of Djiboutian higher education, with AFD funding.
Finally, in 2020, he takes the lead of the country’s brand new space program, which will launch Djibouti’s first two locally manufactured nanosatellites in 2023, following a technology transfer with the Center Spatial Universitaire de Montpelier. Currently, he is at the heart of negotiations with the Chinese group HKATG, which plans to invest nearly a billion dollars in constructing a world-class spaceport in Djibouti.”