Maltese soldiers are safe following a grenade attack on a restaurant in Djibouti where they were eating with Dutch soldiers, the government said.

The 21 Maltese are their way to Somalia on an anti-piracy mission. They left Malta on May 11 on board the Dutch ship HNLMS De Seven Provincien.

Two people were killed in the double grenade blasts at the busy restaurant popular with Westerners. Another 11 were wounded. 

It was not clear who was behind the attack.

Djibouti has the only US military base in Africa and is an important ally in the US-led fight against militant Islam.

The former French colony's port is also used by foreign navies protecting the Gulf of Aden's shipping lanes, some of the busiest in the world, from Somali pirates.

It has also contributed troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia. Other contributing countries, Kenya and Uganda, have in the past been hit by gun and bomb attacks by Somalia's al Qaeda-linked Shabaab insurgents.

Somali troops and AMISOM, comprising troops from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Djibouti, drove al Shabaab out of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in 2011.

On Saturday, al Shabaab attacked the parliament in Somalia, killing at least 10 security officers.