A Djiboutian team member has said working with an unfamiliar plant species made the experience especially enriching

A team of students from Djibouti has won a gold medal at the Open International Biology Olympiad (OIBO) hosted by the Russian Sirius Educational Center in Sochi. 

Djibouti was represented by Hassan Mohamed Seid, Maydoub Ilyas Mohamoud, and Mohamed Eleyeh Abdillahi, who were selected through a national academic competition. All are enrolled in a specialized science-focused school in their homeland.

The Olympiad brought together 70 participants from 14 countries, including Russia, Belarus, Abkhazia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, South Ossetia, and Djibouti.

The Djiboutian team completed all three phases of the competition: a written theoretical exam, a practical laboratory assessment, and a collaborative group project. Their project, which focused on the native flora of the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, earned them top marks and a gold medal in the project category.

Describing the experience, Seid said the team's research involved studying diverse plant species, analyzing environmental stressors, and identifying threats to regional biodiversity. He noted that working with unfamiliar flora was particularly rewarding.

"This was especially interesting and exotic because completely different plants grow in our country," he said, as quoted by the press sevice of Russian Sirius Educational Center. He added that the team was overjoyed by their success and expressed a desire to return to Sirius in the future.

Djibouti's La Nation newspaper described the victory as part of a growing pattern of academic success for the country's youth. African students have previously distinguished themselves at the African Mathematics Olympiad in South Africa and in Qatar.

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The OIBO 2025 was held from May 10 to 17 in the Sirius federal territory on the Black Sea coast. The competition engages students in solving key biological and biotechnological challenges, promotes collaboration with industry, and fosters international cooperation and knowledge exchange.