The programme, backed by the State Secretary for Youth and Sports as well as Djibouti’s National Olympic Committee, aims to get 1,000 more people involved in judo.

Despite limited finances and a lack of equipment, the scheme has already seen results, according to DJF President Faissal Abdourahman, who has also revealed they are in talks with the Japanese Embassy ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

He plans to help spread the initiative across further parts of the country in the coming months by creating judo clubs, which he hopeswill aid the DJF in reaching their primary aim.

It is also hoped infrastructure, such as competition venues, will be built in Djibouti in the coming years as they bid to increase their participation in judo events at regional, continental and international level.

The programme itself features organising regular training courses for judo coaches in the country and aims to harness the experience of Djibouti’s 45 black belt judokas.

“The permanent training of our coaches represents the core of the development of judo in our country and the creation of new judo clubs in the different zones of the capital as well as the creation of regional leagues will also help us to develop judo,” Abdourahman said.

“Setting up such a programme will benefit many sectors of our Federation: we will have an easier job to detect new talents and will be able to select better judoka.

“We decided to set up a programme to increase the popularity of judo throughout Djibouti.”

Abdourahman also hopes they can benefit from global support from the International Judo Federation and Olympic Solidarity funding.

“We already note an increase of the number of judo players,” he added.

“Our strength is our willingness to develop the programme.

“We have enough judo technicians and we believe that we can do it.

“We will organise a lot of local and national competition and step by step we are planning on participation in international events.

“First at the regional level, then continental and of course international.”