Ogaden is one of the historical names used for the modern Somali Region. It is also natively referred to as Soomaali Galbeed. The region forms the eastern portion of Ethiopia and borders Somalia. It also includes another region to the north known as Haud.
The Western Somali Liberation Front was a Somali movement fighting in eastern Ethiopia to liberate the Somali inhabited Ogaden region from Ethiopian control. It played a major role in the Ogaden War of 1977–78,assisting the invading Somali Army.
Jijiga is the capital city of Somali Region,Ethiopia. It became the capital of the Somali Region in 1995 after it was moved from Gode. Located in the Fafan Zone with 75 km (37 mi) west of the border with Somaliland,the city has an elevation of 1,634 metres above sea level. Jigjiga is traditionally the seat of the Bartire Garad Wiil-Waal of the Jidwaaq Absame. The International airport is named after him.
The Ogaden War,also known as the Ethio-Somali War,was a military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia from July 1977 to March 1978 over the sovereignty of Ogaden. Somalia's invasion of the region,precursor to the wider war,met with the Soviet Union's disapproval,leading the superpower to end its support for Somalia and to fully support Ethiopia instead.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front,abbreviated ONLF,is a Somali political and military organization which aims for the self-determination of the Somali people in the Ogaden and the Somali Region of Ethiopia.
Mohammad Ali Samatar. was a Somali military officer,politician,former Commander-in-Chief of the Somali National Army,former Minister of Defence,former Vice President (1971-1990),former Deputy General Secretary of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party,and former Prime Minister. He was known for his intelligent military tactics in the 1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War,Ogaden War and 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War.
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya was an Islamist politico-military group in Somalia. Formed in 1983 through a merger of smaller Islamist groups,the organization was the most powerful Islamic movement in the country during the late 80s and early 90s. It also had the most widespread clan following of all the Islamist factions across the nation and professed the aim of creating a Somali Islamic state.
The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea,fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991.
The Somali Rebellion was the start of the Somali Civil War that began in the 1970s and resulted in the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991. The rebellion effectively began in 1978 following a failed coup d’état and President Siad Barre began using his special forces,the "Red Berets",to attack clan-based dissident groups opposed to his regime. Backed by Ethiopia,the two earliest rebel factions,the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) and the Somali National Movement (SNM) began attacks during the against government forces during the early 1980s.
The raid on Abole oil exploration facility occurred in the early morning of 24 April 2007,when insurgents of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked the oil exploration facility in the town of Abole,30 km (19 mi) northwest of Degehabur,in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The facility was operated by Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB),a subsidiary of the China Petroleum &Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) which was contracted on behalf of Malaysian oil and gas multinational Petronas.
The Ogaden Basin is an area of Huwan that may hold significant reserves of crude oil and natural gas. The basin covers an area of some 350,000 square kilometres and is formed from sedimentary rocks up to 10,000 meters thick. It has geological similarities to other hydrocarbon-rich basins in the Middle East.
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 over 60 Ethiopian troops and several foreign workers during a raid on a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April 2007.
The Insurgency in Ogaden was an armed conflict that took place from 1992 to 2018. It was waged by nationalist and islamist Somali insurgent groups seeking self determination for the region,primarily the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI). The war in the region began in 1992,when the Ethiopian government attacked AIAI in an attempt to suppress the growth of the organization. In 1994,the ONLF commenced its armed struggle and began publicly calling for an independent 'Ogadenia' state.
The Karanle are a Somali clan,forming one of the six branches of the larger Hawiye clan. The Karanle are geographically spread out across three countries:Somalia,Ethiopia,and Kenya. Among all of the Karanle inhabited regions of the Horn of Africa,Ethiopia is where the majority of the clan reside. In Ethiopia,the Karanle are mainly found in Harar,Hubat,and Babile but they also inhabit the Somali Region,Dire Dawa and surrounding regions. The majority of the Karanle Sub-clans predominantly reside in the regions of Ethiopia where the Somali population is predominant,with the exception of the Murusade Sub-clan,who reside in central and southern Somalia.
Admiral Mohamed Omar Osman is a Somali admiral,war hero and the incumbent chairman of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
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.
Sheikh Mohamed Hikam Sheikh Abdirahman was an ethnic Somali Islamic scholar originating from the Somali region of Ethiopia. He was born around the 1920s in the district of Babile,which is around 76km east of the historical city of Harar. He was an Islamic scholar,community elder,reformer,poet,freedom fighter and formidable peace negotiator in the clan-dominated,lawless Somali region in the 1960s. He studied Islamic religion with a famous sheikh called Sheikh Abdiweli Gurgure at Belbeleyti area of Oromia region in the 1940s-50s.
Abdirahman Mahdi is one of the founders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF),a political movement determined to allow the people of Ogaden to exercise their right to self-determination in the Horn of Africa and its current Chairman since November 12,2019. The ONLF is considered a terrorist organisation by the government of Ethiopia.
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule,reducing ethnic tensions,promoting regional autonomy,and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive,both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict,and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition,under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF,under Abiy,was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election,returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period,and all administrations,a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued,and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization,which has itself been attributed to,and used to justify,authoritarian state policy.
The following events detail foreign affairs dominated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi from his presidency until his death in 2012.
