People / group

Issa (clan)

Also known as Issa Somali

The Issa are a Somali clan of the Dir family, living in Djibouti, the Somali Region of Ethiopia and north-western Somalia. In the 1880s French officers such as Léonce Lagarde signed protection treaties with Issa clans, and their coast became part of French Somaliland. Rivalry between the Issa and the Afar shaped the colony's politics, and Djibouti's first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, was an Issa.

Issa (clan)
Image: Skilla1st · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 4 state histories

ObockFrench SomalilandFrench Territory of the Afars and the IssasDjibouti

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Issa (clan). In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/issa-clan
MLA
“Issa (clan).” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/issa-clan. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Issa (clan).” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/issa-clan.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Issa (clan)’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/issa-clan (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻