Ogad war
| date | 1977-1988 |
|---|---|
| place | Ogaden |
| output | Victory of Ethiopia; Change of Somalia to the US side in the Cold War |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 75,000 full-time soldiers (1980) 1,500 Soviet advisors 15,000 to 18,000 Cubans 2,000 South Yemenis |
Somali National Army: 60,000 WSLF: 15,000 |
| losses | |
|
9,000 dead, 17,000 wounded |
20,000 dead or wounded |
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The Ogaden War was a war between Ethiopia and Somalia over the Ogaden region from 1977 to 1978. The trigger was Somalia's attempt to gain control of what is now the Ethiopian Ogaden, which is mostly populated by ethnic Somali and is therefore claimed by Somali nationalists as part of a Greater Somalia . The conflict was dominated by the Cold War ; Ethiopia under Mengistu was supported by the Soviet Union from 1977 , after which Somalia under Siad Barre broke with the Soviet Union and received US support from now on . The Ogaden War ended with the defeat of Somalia.
prehistory
The trigger for the war was the desire of the Somali government under Siad Barre to incorporate Ogaden, which is mostly populated by Somali, into a "Greater Somalia". However, Barre likely would not have ordered the invasion of Ethiopia if circumstances had not worked out in his favor. Ethiopia had traditionally dominated the region, and the Somali National Army (SNA) was clearly inferior in strength to the Ethiopian army. During the 1970s Somalia had received massive military aid from the Soviet Union, so that the SNA eventually had three times as many tanks as Ethiopia and a larger air force.
While Somalia had grown in military strength, Ethiopia was weakened due to internal political circumstances. 1974 had Derg - military junta the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie overthrown, but soon mired in infighting, after which there was unrest. In various parts of the country, anti-Derg and separatist forces were active. The regional balance of power had shifted in favor of Somalia.
One of the armed groups in Ethiopia was the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) operating in Ogaden , which had carried out attacks on numerous government outposts until 1975. In 1976/77 Somalia supported the WSLF with arms deliveries and other aid.
The appointment of Mengistu Haile Mariam as chairman of Derg on February 11, 1977 marked the end of internal disputes and the restoration of a certain order in Ethiopia. However, unrest continued in many parts of the country and the government cracked down on military and civilian opponents. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union decided to support the new Marxist-Leninist regime in Ethiopia. She offered Mengistu support on condition that Ethiopia end its previous alliance with the United States. Mengistu gladly accepted this offer, since the US under Jimmy Carter had cut military aid precisely because of the human rights violations of the Derg government, and then had the US military mission and the US communications center closed.
In June 1977 Mengistu accused Somalia of smuggling SNA soldiers into Ethiopian territory to fight alongside the WSLF. Although there was strong evidence to the contrary, Barre insisted that it was not and that only “volunteers” from the SNA were allowed to support the WSLF.
course
On July 23, 1977 Somalia began the open invasion of Ogaden. At that time the combined troop strength of the WSLF and SNA was about 50,000. By the end of the month, the SNA-WSLF had taken 60 percent of the Ogaden, including the city of Gode am Shabelle (Shebeli). The attacking troops had suffered significant losses from the defending Ethiopian forces in Jijiga and Dire Dawa . The Ethiopian Air Force also began to gain air superiority with the help of their Northrop F-5s , although the Somali MiG-21s outnumbered them.
The USSR found itself able to support both sides in this war. After her attempts to broker a ceasefire failed, she opted for Ethiopia, stopped all support to Somalia and massively increased military aid for Ethiopia. Around 15,000-18,000 Cuban soldiers were relocated from Angola to Ethiopia, and North Korea helped train a “people's militia”. The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and the GDR also participated in this military aid operation.
When the extent of communist support for the other side became known in November 1977, Somalia terminated the friendship and cooperation treaty with the USSR, broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba and expelled all Soviet citizens from the country. However, not all communist states sided with Ethiopia. As a result of the Sino-Soviet rift , the People's Republic of China provided Somalia with diplomatic and military aid. Also Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu maintained good relations with Somalia.
The biggest victory for the SNA and WSLF was a second attack on Jijiga in mid-September, during which the demoralized Ethiopian troops withdrew from the city. The defending troops could not hold back the attacking Somali, so that the Ethiopian military had to withdraw over the strategically important Marda Pass between Jijiga and Harar . In September, Ethiopia had to admit that it controlled only a tenth of the Ogaden and that its troops had been pushed to the western, non-Somali outskirts of the provinces of Harerge , Bale and Sidamo . Nevertheless, the Somali were unable to develop their advantages further, as they suffered considerable losses in their tank battalions and constant Ethiopian air strikes. The beginning of the rainy season made the paths impassable. In addition, Ethiopia had managed to set up a militia with around 100,000 members and to integrate it into the regular armed forces. Ethiopia, which had previously used weapons from US supplies, also adapted to the use of the new Soviet weapons.
From October 1977 to January 1978 the Somali tried to take Harar, where 40,000 Ethiopians, 1,500 Soviet advisers and 11,000 Cubans had settled. Although they had advanced to the edge of the city in November, Somali forces were too exhausted to take Harar and had to withdraw and await an Ethiopian counterattack.
The expected Ethiopian-Cuban attack came in early February. However, it was accompanied by a second attack that the Somali did not expect. Ethiopian and Cuban troops had marched through the highlands in the northeast between Harar and the Somali border and had bypassed the SNA-WSLF, which was monitoring the route over the Marda Pass. They were able to attack the Somali from two sides, recapture Jijiga in two days and kill 3000 opponents in the process. The Somali defense collapsed, and in the weeks that followed, Ethiopia was able to retake all the major places. When he realized that his position was hopeless, Siad Barre ordered the withdrawal of the SNA on March 9, 1978. On March 15, the last significant Somali unit left Ethiopia, marking the end of the war. A truce was declared.
consequences
Even after the withdrawal of the SNA, the WSLF continued its uprising. In May 1980, the rebels, along with some SNA soldiers who continued to fight on their side, controlled a significant part of the Ogaden. From 1981, however, the rebel activities were limited to sporadic attacks. Parts of the earlier WSLF formed the Ogaden National Liberation Front , which still exists today .
The Somali army had lost a third of its regular soldiers, three quarters of its tanks and half of the air force. The Ogaden War had cost Somalia high. In addition, during and especially after the war - also due to a drought in Ogaden in 1978 and the ongoing conflict in the area - 650,000 to 1.5 million Somali and Oromo refugees came from Ethiopian territory. Their supply and integration posed considerable problems for Somalia. Siad Barre also came under suspicion of reporting excessive refugee numbers in order to get more international aid. The defeat and the aftermath of the war led to growing dissatisfaction with the Barre government.
With the fall of Barres and the beginning of the civil war in Somalia in 1991, international support for these Ogaden refugees ended. Some of them stayed in Somalia until today (2008).
Djibouti took in around 45,000 Ogaden refugees, of whom 15,000 had been repatriated by 1984.
Ethiopian-Somali relations remained tense for the next decade. While Somalia continued to support Ogaden separatists to a lesser extent, Ethiopia supported opposition groups such as SSDF and SNM , which began armed resistance against the Somali government. A peace agreement was not signed until 1988, after which the mutual support of rebel organizations was discontinued.
literature
- Volker Matthies: Wars in the Horn of Africa. Historical findings and peace studies analysis . Köster, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89574-570-7 , therein Chapter 2.26: The Ogadenkrieg between Ethiopia and Somalia (1977/78) , pp. 135-154.
See also
Web links
- Ogaden was globalsecurity.org
- The Ogaden War 1977–1978 onwar.com
- Ethiopia - War in the Ogaden and the Turn to the Soviet Union Countrystudies.us
- Somalia - Foreign Relations Countrystudies.us
- Somalia - Refugees Countrystudies.us
Individual evidence
- ^ Joachim Krause : Soviet military aid policy towards developing countries. (= International Politics and Security, Volume 16) Nomos, Baden-Baden 1985, ISBN 3-7890-1137-1 , p. 327.
- ↑ a b Ethiopia - Refugees, Drought, and Famine Countrystudies, us
- ↑ Ethiopia-Somalia: Drought, fighting worsens situation of “Ogaden refugees” . IRIN News