Update Apr,18: This expedition would test the patience of most people.
This morning at 0700 local we departed the mainland for the 40 minute crossing to Moucha Island. We identified an excellent location for radio upon arrival and immediately assembled a 15m VDA and 17m & 20m vertical dipoles. Our intention was to add more antennas as the day progressed.
Literally 5 minutes before the first CQ from AF-053 we received a phone-call from National Security saying signatures were needed for the authorization letter to permit us to collect our impounded gear.  This same letter would also allow us to depart Djibouti without anymore issues at airport customs. However, we had to return to the mainland to get the letter.
The weekend is Friday and Saturday here in Djibouti meaning this would likely be our final chance of obtaining the important authorization letter prior to heading home.
Before we had even started, teardown begun. Yes, we left the island 2 hours after arriving. AF-053 is now also cancelled.
Upon returning to the mainland we headed straight to the National Security offices. Yes, you guessed it – no authorized letter to be seen. We had basically been told fake news.
We’ve now had enough of this country and look forward to heading home.
All spots for J20DX on the cluster are fake.

Update Apr,17: We have still not been able to retrieve our bags and equipment from the airport customs as the national security letter has not yet been signed.
Sadly, now due to time constraints, this means our plans to activate AF-059 are cancelled. Nobody is more disappointed about that than us.
At present we aim to be active from Moucha or Maskali Island AF-053 starting tomorrow and staying there until Friday evening or Saturday morning. Of course, this depends on the aforementioned bags being released by custom officials. J20DX callsign will be used from there.
Should plans again change we will update. Thanks for your understanding and recent messages of support.

Update Apr,16: Unfortunately, Col MM0NDX & Jonathan MM0OKG had all of their radio equipment impounded by customs at Djibouti Ambouli international airport on arrival despite Christian EA3NT clearing customs smoothly 2 days before!! This remains the case today despite our official radio licenses being issued by Djibouti Telecom permitting us to operate radio without any conditions.
Last 24 hours has seen us visit the National Security offices and the Djibouti Telecoms Agency. To cut a long story short, we have been informed that tomorrow a decision will be made by the security agency on whether we can obtain authorisation to retrieve our equipment and rebuild the project. More updates tomorrow morning [More news].

Update Apr,11: The team will be active as J20NT from their hotel in Djibouti between April 13-14th (city not mentioned). Activity will be on 80-6 meters.

Tentative dates for AF-059 (signing as J20DX) are April 16th-18th/19th, and for AF-053 (signing as J20DX/p) are April 18th/19th-19th/20th. The current list of operators has been updated to Col/MM0NDX, Jonathan/MM0OKG and Christian/EA3NT.

QSL via M0SDV, ClubLog or LoTW.

Update Mar,21: Since early February we have been waiting patiently for final approval / permission from both the Djibouti military commander-in-chief and government commissionaire to stay overnight Kadda Dabali island. Today we can report that permission has been granted. We are extremely lucky and grateful to all authorities enabling us to stay up to 72 hours in the AF-059 group.

Although not an ideal island in terms of some paths being blocked, we do not yet know if it’s possible to stay on another island (instead of Kadda Dabali) and will only find out once we meet our boatman. We will update on air the exact AF-059 island we’ll be QRV from…

[read more here]

Update Feb,24: “We’ve been working tirelessly to stick to our original plan and activate both AF-053 & AF-059. As mentioned previously we recently hit a brick wall with news that Sept Freres is currently off-limits. However, in the coming days it appears we will have some good news to share!”

Update Feb,7: OUR PLANS TO ACTIVATE AF-059 HAVE TAKEN A MAJOR TWIST – SEE LATEST NEWS PAGE FOR FULL INFO.

Update Feb,1: They will operate with three stations as J20DX/p from the rare Sept-Freres Islands (AF-059) indicatively on 16-18/19 April, and after that from Moucha Island (AF-053) for about 24 hours until early 20 April. They will also be QRV as J20DX/mm while at sea, and as J20DX from the mainland.

Update Jan,28: Christian EA3NT joins the expedition and slight changes to schedule have been made.

After their successful EL2EL/4 DXpedition to AF-111NEW, Col MM0NDX and Jonathan MM0OKG are delighted to announce another exciting IOTA/DXCC Project – this time to Djibouti, East Africa. Activity is planned from both AF-053 (Moucha) and the super rare AF-059 (Sept Frere). Planning is ongoing and they will update this website with latest info as the weeks progress. Dates: (approx) April 14-20, 2019.