Haud

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Map of Ogaden and today's Somali region with Haud

Haud or Hawd refers to the northeastern part of what is now the Ethiopian Ogaden ( Somali region ), east of the city of Harar . The not precisely delimited area covers an area of ​​about 64,750 km² and extends to a small extent to the south of northern Somalia ( Somaliland ). From a height of about 1,220 m in the north-west - where the Somali highlands adjoin - the Haud plateau drops to 450 m in the south-east.

The Haud landscape is a savannah of varying degrees of fertility. Except in some areas in the west, there are hardly any year-round water sources, so that the Haud is almost uninhabited in the dry season from January to April. In the rainy season from April to June enough water accumulates for five to six months. During this time Somali nomads cross the area with camels, goats and sheep.

history

The current border, which divides the Haud between Ethiopia and Somalia and mostly strikes Ethiopia, was established in 1897 in a treaty between the Empire of Ethiopia and the colonial rulers of what was then British Somaliland . It was confirmed in a further Anglo-Ethiopian treaty in 1941. According to that treaty, Great Britain took over the administration of the Haud and other areas for some time in order to aid the reconstruction of Ethiopia after the Italo-Ethiopian War , and maintained a military presence until 1954.

Somalia, which became independent in 1960 as a merger of British and Italian Somaliland, did not want to recognize this demarcation, which repeatedly led to disputes in the border area. To this day, the border dispute has not been resolved. Furthermore, Ethiopia allows Somali nomads to cross the border and graze their cattle in the Haud, as they have done for centuries.

See also

swell