Greater Somalia is a concept to unite all ethnic Somalis comprising the regions in or near the Horn of Africa in which ethnic Somalis live and have historically inhabited. The territory historically encompassed British Jubaland Province, British Somali Coast Protectorate, Italian Somaliland, parts of French Somaliland, the Somali Region in Ethiopia, the Northern Frontier District in Kenya, and the intra-46th meridian east territories. At the present, it encompasses Somalia proper, Jubaland, southern and eastern Djibouti, the Somali Region and Dire Dawa in Ethiopia, and the Garissa, Wajir and Mandera Counties in Kenya.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front is a social and political movement, founded in 1984 to campaign for the right to self-determination for Somalis in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Its armed wing, the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA), waged a violent insurgency against the Ethiopian government from 1994 to 2018.
The Leelkase or Lailkase or Lelkase is a major subclan of the Tanade Darod clan. The term "Leelkase" is a nickname, which translates as "farsighted, mindful, smart or intelligent.
The Hawiye is the largest Somali clan family. Members of this clan traditionally inhabit central and southern Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. They are also the majority in the capital city, Mogadishu.
The Darod is a Somali clan. The forefather of this clan was Sheikh Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, more commonly known as Darood. The clan primarily settles the apex of the Horn of Africa and its peripheries, the Somali hinterlands up to Oromia, and both sides of the Kenya–Somalia border.
The Dir is one of the largest and most prominent Somali clans in the Horn of Africa. They are also considered to be the oldest Somali stock to have inhabited the region. Its members inhabit Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, and northeastern Kenya.
General Waqo Gutu Usu was an Ethiopian rebel and leader of one of the earlier Oromo resistance fighter movements; the Bale Revolt, which in the 1960s had fought against the feudalistic system in place in the Ethiopian Empire. He was elected chairman of the United Liberation Forces of Oromia in 2000. In 2006, Gutu died in a Nairobi hospital, survived by 20 sons and 17 daughters.
The Rahanweyn, also known as the Digil and Mirifle are a major Somali clan. It is one of the major Somali clans in the Horn of Africa, with a large territory and densely populated fertile valleys of the Jubba and Shebelle rivers and the area between are mainly inhabited by settlers from the Digil and Mirifle lineages.
The Ogaden is one of the major Somali clans.
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya was an Islamist militant group in Somalia. It is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (English: Hassan Dahir Aweys (Somali: Xasan Daahir Aweys, is a Somali political figure from the Habargidir/Ayr subclan within the Hawiye clan. During the regime of Siad Barre, Aweys was a colonel in the Somali National Army during the 1977 Ogaden War against Ethiopia. He was decorated for bravery for his part in 1977 the war. At an early stage in the fighting, Sheikh Aweys captured Abdullahi Yusuf and put him in jail. Sheikh Aweys later became a leader of Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, which was destroyed in the late 1990s by a force led by Abdullahi Yusuf and funded by Ethiopia.
The 2006 Islamic Courts Union offensive is the period in the Somali Civil War that began in May 2006 with the Islamic Courts Union's (ICU) conquest of Mogadishu from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and continued with further ICU expansion in the country. Following the outbreak of the war on December 21, 2006; by December 24, direct Ethiopian intervention in the conflict in support of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was no longer denied by the Ethiopian government. The Eritrean government denied any involvement despite Ethiopian claims to the contrary.
Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki was a Somali Islamist leader of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) and later of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).
Over the course of the Somali Civil War, there have been many revolutionary movements and militia groups run by competing rebel leaders which have held de facto control over vast areas within Somalia.
The timeline of events in the War in Somalia during 2006 is set out below.
The Bimaal or Bimal, is a sub-clan of the major Dir clan family. This clan is widely known for leading a resistance against the colonials in southern Somalia for decades which can be compared to the war of the Sayyid in Somaliland. The Biimaal mainly lives in Southern Somalia, the Somali region of Ethiopia, which their Gaadsen sub-clan mainly inhabits and in the NEP region of Kenya.
The Karanle is a major Somali, sub clan of Hawiye. The Karanle inhabit Galgaduud, Banadir, Mogadishu, Hiiraan, Shabeellaha Hoose, Lower Juba and Mudug regions in Somalia; the Somali Region of Ethiopia; the region of Oromia surrounding the city of Harar and North Eastern Province in Kenya.
The Gurgura, Gorgorah or Gurgure is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family.
The Somaliland War of Independence was a rebellion waged by the Somali National Movement against the ruling military junta in Somalia led by General Siad Barre lasting from its founding on 6 April 1981 and ended on 18 May 1991 when the SNM declared what was then northern Somalia independent as the Republic of Somaliland. The conflict served as the main theater of the larger Somali Rebellion that started in 1978. The conflict was in response to the harsh policies enacted by the Barre regime against the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, including a declaration of economic warfare on the Isaaq. These harsh policies were put into effect shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War in 1978.
The Ethiopian federal constitution (1995-present) formalizes an ethnic federalism intended to alleviate ethnic tensions, promote regional autonomy, and uphold unconditional rights of self-determination and secession in a state that contains over 80 ethnic groups. Since its enactment it has remained controversial, particularly with Ethiopian nationalists. There has been economic growth and liberalisation, but a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued. The on-going Tigray War is causing widespread displacement and hunger. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years and all but one of these have been won by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) under three prime ministers. In 2019 the EPDRF under Abiy was dissolved and he inaugurated the Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election, returning him as prime minister.
