After spending 7 years in the "Centre de détention de Muret" , the French jail, he was later traded for the French Ambassador to Somalia, John Gueury who was kidnapped by the "Front de libération de la Côte des Somalis" (FLCS), the French Somali Coast Liberation Front.
He returned to Djibouti in the 2000s, where he became a presidential adviser and head of the research center "de l'institut de géopolitique au Centre d'études et de recherche de Djibouti" (CERD) [REF].