Ogaden
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Ogaden ( Somali : Ogaadeen or Ogaadeeniya ; German also the Ogaden ) is the name of an area that is mainly inhabited by Somali , has belonged to Ethiopia since the end of the 19th century and was claimed by Somalia in the 20th century . The name is from the Clan of Ogadeni- Darod derived, in which most Somalis in Ethiopia. Within Ethiopia, this area was divided between the provinces of Harerge and Bale for most of the time, and since 1991 it has been part of the Somali region .
In the 20th century there were tensions and conflicts between Somalia and Ethiopia, as Somali separatists, with the support of the Somali government , wanted to annex Ogaden to Somalia and thus create a Greater Somalia . The climax of these conflicts was the Ogaden War in 1977/78. The still active separatists of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, on the other hand, are striving for an independence of the area.
Naming and expansion
In a narrower sense, Ogaden refers to the area in which the Somali of the eponymous clan of the Ogadeni- Darod live. This area roughly includes today's administrative zones Fiq , Korahe , Degehabur , Gode and Warder .
In a broader sense, the areas of other Somali clans in Ethiopia ( Dir , Hawiye , Isaaq ) are also included, which make up the majority in the Shinile , Jijiga , Afder and Liben zones . Some of these clans are skeptical of the term "Ogaden", which, in their view, implies a predominance of the Ogadeni.
Somalia also claimed parts of the provinces of Harerge, Bale and Sidamo further west , in which mainly Oromo live, as part of Ogaden or Western Somalia ( Soomaaliya Galbeed ). Analogous to the former colonial names French Somaliland ( Djibouti ), British Somaliland (now Somaliland ) and Italian Somaliland (central and southern Somalia), Ogaden was also known as Ethiopian Somaliland .
Since 1991, most of the Somali areas in Ethiopia have been grouped together in the Somali region , which was initially also called Region 5 . However, the border with the Oromia region remains controversial. The city of Dire Dawa claimed by both regions became an independent city, Harar became a separate region with the Aderi as the titular nation. The capital of Somali was first Gode and from 1995 Jijiga .
history
Since the 15th century there have been conflicts between Christian Ethiopia and Muslim sultanates in Ogaden and Northern Somalia ( see Sultanate Ifat , Sultanate Adal , Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ). Occasionally, a continuity is seen between these conflicts and the Somali-Ethiopian differences since the 19th century.
Incorporation in Ethiopia
Under Menelik II , the Ethiopian Empire conquered the city of Harar in 1887 and thereupon also laid claim to desert areas further east, inhabited by Somali nomads. The Somali were gradually subdued. In 1910, the European powers recognized the Ethiopian claim to the area, not least at the instigation of Italy, which wanted to avoid annexation to British Somaliland bordering to the north . However, an actual integration into the Ethiopian state was only attempted after the Second World War.
Before the British-Ethiopian partition agreement of 1897, Ethiopia's eastern border was on the Shabelle River, and in 1907 Italy also recognized the new borders that are still valid today. From 1930, however, the Italian Mussolini regime claimed parts of Ogaden. After a "border incident" at Walwal (Ualual) in early November 1934, almost 100 kilometers deep in Ethiopia, Italy unceremoniously occupied those areas in December about east of a line from Dolo (Somali-Ethiopian- Kenyan triangle) in the south to Buuhoodle (Bohotle) or . Boosaaso (coastal town in the north Italian Somaliland ). This culminated in the Italo-Ethiopian War in October 1935 , but General Graziani's southern front in Ogaden only played a subordinate role in the course of the war . During the Italian occupation of 1936–1941, the areas as far as the Negele - Hargeysa line were spun off from Ethiopia and directly annexed to the colony of Italian Somaliland - in principle in accordance with a border change to the disadvantage of Ethiopia previously proposed by the foreign ministers of France and Great Britain (however, Hoare- According to the Laval Pact , at least Assab should fall in exchange to Ethiopia). Great Britain, which defeated Italy in Ethiopia in 1941, administered parts of the Ogaden as Reserved Areas until 1948 and the Haud sub-area until 1954 . These areas were returned to Ethiopia despite protests from Somali people. The border with Italian Somaliland, which was restored at the end of the war and in 1950, was straightened or corrected in 1955 in favor of Ethiopia.
Conflicts with Somalia
Especially from the middle of the 20th century, there were efforts among parts of the Somali population to abolish the colonial division of their territory that took place at the end of the 19th century and to unite all Somali in a greater Somalia . These efforts received further impetus with the decolonization of the region. Somalia , which became independent in 1960, enshrined it in its constitution and laid claim to northeast Kenya , French Somaliland and Ogaden. In order to enforce its claim against Ethiopia, the Somali state founded the West Somali Liberation Front (WSLF).
When the Ethiopian state first tried to systematically collect taxes from the Somali in 1963, revolts broke out in the lowlands of Harerge and Bale, which were supported by the Somali government, but which never posed a serious threat to Ethiopia. At the same time it came under the Oromo in the highlands of Bale to the " Bale revolt ", which also received support from Somalia. While the revolt in the highlands could not be put down until 1970, the Somali guerrillas were essentially eliminated after military offensives in 1963 and 1964 - including a brief border war between Somalia and Ethiopia. The area then remained under military administration. Punitive expeditions against the Somali were carried out, during which cattle were confiscated and killed, which weakened the livelihood of nomadic ranchers. Amharic farmers were encouraged to settle in more fertile areas, particularly around Jijiga . With the introduction of the administration, attempts were also made to regulate the cattle trade, so that the sale of cattle to Hargeysa and Berbera in northern Somalia was now considered smuggling and punished with confiscation. In addition, the government took control of wells and water points, which are of the greatest importance to the nomads in the arid area. In 1967 there were further military actions against WSLF groups in the lowlands of Bale, who acted in coordination with the Oromo rebels in the highlands.
The Somali president and dictator Siad Barre , who came to power in 1969 , initially formally dissolved the WSLF, but without giving up its territorial claims against Ethiopia. In 1971/72 there were conflicts between Somali from the Issa clan and the neighboring Afar ethnic group , which sparked on the one hand over the political future of French Somaliland (Djibouti) and on the other hand over access to wells during a drought. The Ethiopian army intervened against the Issa, killing hundreds of people and confiscating around 200,000 head of cattle. In 1974/75 drought combined with conflict with the Afar and government measures resulted in a famine in the Ogaden, which probably resulted in around 55,000 deaths. The state's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) provided humanitarian aid, but its activities were also aimed at strengthening government control over the population and sedating the nomads.
Ogad war and more battles
When Ethiopia was weakened after the overthrow of Haile Selassie and the seizure of power by the communist Derg regime in 1974, Siad Barre re-founded the WSLF, and in 1976 guerrilla activities controlled from Somalia began, in which soldiers of the Somali army secretly smuggled in from 1977 also took part. In mid-1977 the covert invasion turned into open warfare, and the Somali side quickly captured vast areas of the lowlands. Fights for cities in the northern area followed, with the Somali Jijiga conquering, but not Harar and Dire Dawa . The Ogaden War was also a proxy war in which Somalia was supported first by the Soviet Union , then by the USA, while the Soviet Union sided with the Derg. The massive support from the Soviet Union and from Cuban and South Yemeni troops for Ethiopia finally brought about the turning point in early 1978.
About six months after Somalia's defeat, rebel attacks increased again, and by 1979 the WSLF had removed vast rural areas from the control of the Ethiopian army. In 1979/80 an army offensive began against the WSLF and at the same time against the Oromo Liberation Front in the highlands, whereby the livelihoods of the population (water points and cattle herds) became targets in order to destroy the support base of the rebels. For the people of Ogaden, this phase of the conflict had more serious consequences than the actual Ogaden war. The number of war displaced persons within Ethiopia, which had stood at half a million in 1978, rose to over 1.5 million by 1981. In mid-1978, 80,000 to 85,000 Somali and Oromo refugees from Ethiopian territory were living in Somalia, at the end of 1979 there were 440,000–470,000 and at the end of 1980 around 800,000. In 1982 the rebels were largely under control in the lowlands, but there were still isolated attacks in 1983.
While the Somali government continued to sponsor the WSLF, from 1978 onwards, Ethiopia supported rebels who were fighting Siad Barre, according to the SSDF and the SNM . The SNM was also used against the WSLF within Ogaden, while the SSDF refused to do so. In Somalia, Ogaden refugees were forcibly drafted into the army and used against rebels.
In 1984 the Ethiopian Air Force bombed alleged rebel camps in Zeila (Saylac) and other northern Somali cities. In 1986, after the failure of peace negotiations, border skirmishes broke out again, and it was not until 1988 that peace was officially concluded, thus ending mutual support for rebels. But in the same year there was new fighting with Somali rebels in Ogaden. While the WSLF came to a standstill, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) was a new rebel group based in the Ogadeni clan that was directed against the Barre regime.
In 1987 the administrative structure of Ethiopia was changed, with an autonomous region of Ogaden in the far east of the country being formed.
Establishment of the Somali region
In early 1991, Somalia's Barre government collapsed and Somali civil war broke out. The collapse of Somalia led to a temporary end to Greater Somali endeavors. Numerous Ogaden refugees returned from Somalia because the camps were no longer supplied with relief supplies and the security situation deteriorated; Sometimes the refugees were targeted for acts of revenge because they were seen as supporters of Siad Barre. In addition, Somali refugees poured into Ogaden. In the same year, the Tigray People's Liberation Front or EPRDF overthrew the Derg regime.
This new Ethiopian government introduced an "ethnic federalism", which granted the larger ethnic groups their own federal states. A region was also created for the Somali. The first regional elections were won in 1992 by the ONLF, which was still allied with the EPRDF. She advocated naming the new region "Ogaden", but met resistance from the non-Ogadeni clans, who rejected this name as a sign of Ogadeni dominance. Thus the name "Somali" was chosen.
Conflicts and Ethiopian-Somali Relations
Some rebel groups, with help from Eritrea and Somalia, continue the armed struggle for the independence of the region or its affiliation to a "Greater Somalia" until today. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has also recently taken a stand against Chinese companies that are exploiting oil and gas reserves in the region. Since 2007 the conflict between the ONLF and the Ethiopian army has intensified. The army in particular is accused of violating human rights against the population.
Against the background of the Ogaden conflict, the repeated interventions of Ethiopia in the Somali civil war are on the side of various warring parties. The Ethiopian government wants to prevent actors who maintain territorial claims over Ogaden from gaining power in Somalia; According to a widespread view in Somalia, this means that it either wants to maintain Somalia's political fragmentation or to set up a “ puppet government ” that is convenient for it.
Ethiopia supported " Aidid junior " or separatists in Puntland and Southwest Somalia . In 1996–2002, Ethiopian troops directly occupied a number of southwest Somali cities and took part in the warlords' battles against the transitional government of Somalia . At the end of 2006, Ethiopian troops on the side of the transitional government marched against the Union of Islamic Courts - parts of which had called for jihad against Ethiopia to conquer Ogaden - and withdrew in early 2009.
See also
- Haud (part of the Ogaden)
- Ogad war
- Ogaden National Liberation Front
- History of Ethiopia
- History of Somalia
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Human Rights Watch: Collective Punishment. War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State. Human Rights Watch, New York NY et al. 2008, ISBN 1-56432-322-6 , ( online ).
- ↑ a b Tobias Hagmann: The Political Roots of the Current Crisis in Region 5 . Social Science Research Council, Brooklyn NY 2007.
- ↑ a b Gebru Tareke: The Ethiopia-Somalia War of 1977 Revisited. In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Vol. 33, No. 3, 2000, ISSN 0361-7882 , pp. 635-667, JSTOR 3097438 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Evil Days. 30 Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch, New York NY et al. 1991, ISBN 1-56432-038-3 , pp. 5, 65-67, 70-97, 344-347, ( digital copy (PDF; 3.1 MB) ).
- ↑ Abdi Ismail Samatar: Ethiopian Federalism: Autonomy versus Control in the Somali Region. In: Third World Quarterly. Vol. 25, No. 6, 2004, ISSN 0143-6597 , pp. 1131-1154, here pp. 1138, 1141, JSTOR 3993755 .
- ↑ Ken Menkhaus: Understanding the State Failure in Somalia: Internal and External Dimensions. In: Heinrich Böll Foundation (ed.): Somalia. Old conflicts and new opportunities for state formation (= writings on democracy. Vol. 6). Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-927760-79-0 , pp. 32–55, ( digital version (PDF; 1.28 MB) ).