The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is the military of Ethiopia. Civil direction of the military is carried out through the Ministry of Defense, which oversees the ground forces, air force, as well as the Defense Industry Sector. The current defense minister is Motuma Mekassa.
The Somali National Armed (SNA) are the military forces of Somalia, officially known as the Federal Republic of Somalia. Headed by the President as Commander in Chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Before the Somali civil war broke out, Somalia had the largest and strongest army in the African continent until the collapse of the central government during 1991.
Greater Somalia comprises the regions in or near the Horn of Africa in which ethnic Somalis live and have historically inhabited. The territory historically encompassed British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, French Somaliland, the Ogaden in the Ethiopian Empire and the Northern Frontier District in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. At the present day, it encompasses Somalia, eastern Djibouti, the Somali region and Dire Dawa in Ethiopia, and the Lamu, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera Counties in Kenya.
The Western Somali Liberation Front was a separatist rebel group fighting in eastern Ethiopia to create an independent state. It played a major role in the Ogaden War of 1977-78 assisting the invading Somali Army.
The Ogaden War was a Somali military offensive between July 1977 and March 1978 over the disputed Ethiopian region of Ogaden, which began with the Somali invasion of Ethiopia. The Soviet Union disapproved of the invasion and ceased its support of Somalia, instead starting to support Ethiopia; the United States, conversely, ceased its support of Ethiopia and started supporting Somalia. Ethiopia was saved from a major defeat and a permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies, the arrival of 16,000 Cuban troops, 1,500 Soviet advisors and two brigades from South Yemen, also airlifted to reinforce Harar. The Ethiopians prevailed at Harar, Dire Dawa and Jijiga, and began to push the Somalis systematically out of the Ogaden. By March 1978, the Ethiopians had captured almost all of the Ogaden, prompting the defeated Somalis to give up their claim to the region. A third of the initial Somali National Army invasion force was killed, and half of the Somali Airforce destroyed; the war left Somalia with a disorganized and demoralized army and an angry population. All of these conditions led to a revolt in the army which eventually spiraled into a civil war and Somalia's current situation.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front is a separatist rebel group fighting for the right to self-determination for Somalis in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The ONLF, established in 1984, demands for the autonomy of this region and has claimed responsibility for several attacks since the beginning of 1994 aimed at Ethiopian forces in the area, which the government considers a region under the new federal system. The area of the Somali region stretches at least about 330,000 square kilometres and has over 3 million people, mainly from the Absame Somali tribe. The ONLF claims that Ethiopia is an occupying government, despite the Ogaden being represented in the Ethiopian federal government by groups including the opposition Somali People's Democratic Party (SPDP). The ONLF is composed mainly of members of the Ogaden clan, specifically "the makaahiil tribe of the Ogaden". The armed wing of the ONLF is the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA).
The Somali Civil War was an armed conflict involving largely Ethiopian and Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces and Somali troops from Puntland versus the Somali Islamist umbrella group, the Islamic Court Union (ICU), and other affiliated militias for control of the country. There is a clear connection between Somali Civil War (2009–present) and the War of 2006. The war officially began shortly before July 20, 2006 when U.S. backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia to prop up the TFG in Baidoa. The TFG in Somalia invited Ethiopians to intervene, which became an "unpopular decision". Subsequently, the leader of the ICU, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, declared "Somalia is in a state of war, and all Somalis should take part in this struggle against Ethiopia". On December 24, Ethiopia stated it would actively combat the ICU.
The Ethiopian–Somali conflict is a territorial and political dispute between the territories of present-day Ethiopia and Somalia. Lasting from the late 1940s, when the Ogaden region was handed over to Ethiopia by the British, into the present day, the tensions culminated in three wars and numerous military clashes alongside the borders. However, because of the Somali Civil War and the lack of a functioning central government in Somalia since the collapse of the Democratic Republic of Somalia in 1991, Ethiopia enjoys the upper hand militarily and economically.
The Somali Rebellion was the beginning of the civil war in Somalia that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1990s. The rebellion started in 1986 when Siad Barre began attacking clan-based dissident groups opposed to his rule with his special forces, the "Red Berets". The dissidents had been becoming more powerful for nearly a decade following his abrupt switch of allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States and the disastrous Ogaden War of 1977–1978.
The Somali Air Force (SAF) (Somali: Ciidamada Cirka Soomaaliyeed) (CCS),, Al-Qūwāt al-Gawwīyä as-Ṣūmāl) is the air force of Somalia. The Somali Aeronautical Corps (SAC) was the name of the Somali Air Force during the pre-independence (1954–1960) period. After 1960, when Somalia gained independence, the name changed to the Somali Air Force. SAF principal organizer and the first Somalia pilot Ali Matan Hashi became the founder as well as the Chief of SAF. The SAF at one point had the strongest airstrike capability in the Horn of Africa. Following the outbreak of the civil war in the early 1990s, the air force disbanded. A reconstituted Somali Central Government later relaunched the SAF in the 2010s, with its headquarters being reopened in 2015.
The military history of Ethiopia dates back to the foundation of early Ethiopian Kingdoms in 980 BC. Ethiopia has been involved many of the major conflicts in the horn of Africa, and was the only native African nation which remained independent after the Scramble for Africa, managing to create a modern army. 19th and 20th century Ethiopian Military history is characterized by conflicts between Ethiopia and Italy, which repeatedly attempted to annex the mineral rich nation, and unite its East African holdings.
The Somaliland Campaign, also called the Anglo-Somali War or the Dervish War, was a series of military expeditions that took place between 1900 and 1920 in the Horn of Africa, pitting the Dervishes led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan against the British. The British were assisted in their offensives by the Ethiopians and Italians. During the First World War (1914–1918), Hassan received aid from the Ottomans. The conflict ended when the British aerially bombed the Dervish capital of Taleh in February 1920.
The Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was a conflict fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Ethiopia, in what had been the short-lived attempt to re-incorporate Ethiopia as part of Italian East Africa. The guerrilla campaign was fought following the Italian defeat during the East African Campaign of World War II, while the war was still on in Northern Africa and Europe.
The 2007–2008 Ethiopian crackdown in Ogaden was a military campaign by the Ethiopian Army against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The crackdown against the guerrillas began after they killed 74 people in an attack on a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April 2007.
The Insurgency in Ogaden is an ongoing separatist insurgency, waged by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) against the Ethiopian government. The war began in 1994 when the ONLF attempted to recreate Greater Somalia by unifying Ethiopia's Somali Region with Somalia, or form their own independent state.
The 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War occurred between June and August 1982 when Ethiopia, sending a 10,000 man invasion force backed by warplanes and armored units, supported by hundreds of SSDF rebels invaded Central Somalia. Siad Barre's regime managed to ultimately repel most of the rebel offensive through declaring a state of emergency in the war zone. The United States government responded by speeding up deliveries of light arms and Pattons already promised. In addition, the initially pledged US$45 million in economic and military aid was increased to US$80 million.
The military history of Somalia encompasses the major conventional wars, conflicts and skirmishes involving the historic empires, kingdoms and sultanates in the territory of present-day Somalia, through to modern times. It also covers the martial traditions, military architecture and hardware employed by Somali armies and their opponents.
Ethiopia–Somalia relations are bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Somalia. These relations are characterized by the land border shared by the two countries and a number of military conflicts in recent years.
The Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict was a violent standoff and a proxy conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, as part of the more general violence in the Horn of Africa. It consisted of a series of incidents along the then-disputed border; including the Eritrean–Ethiopian War of 1998–2000 and the subsequent Second Afar Insurgency. The border conflict was a continuation of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War of 1998–2000. It included multiple clashes with numerous casualties, including the Battle of Tsorona in 2016. Ethiopia stated in 2018 that it would cede Badme to Eritrea. This led to the Eritrea–Ethiopia summit on 9 July 2018, where an agreement was signed which demarcated the border and agreed a resumption of diplomatic relations.
