Ogaden

Ogaden, arid region of eastern Ethiopia. It occupies the barren plain between the Somalia-Ethiopia border and the Ethiopian Eastern Highlands (on which Harer and Dire Dawa are situated). The major river of the region is the Shebeli, fed by ephemeral streams. At the southwestern edge of the Ogaden are the headwaters of the Genale (Jubba) River. The region has an overall low population density and is home to Somali-speaking nomadic pastoralists. The Ogaden contains oil and gas fields, but development has been hampered by instability in the region.

In the late 19th century the Ogaden was claimed by both Ethiopia and the Italian protectorate of Somaliland. The Ethiopian emperor Menilek II, having defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in the north in 1896, forestalled them in the east by occupying the Ogaden with his army. Disagreement about the boundary remained, however. Italy occupied the Welwel (Walwal) oasis in the early 1930s and launched a full-scale invasion of the Ogaden from Somaliland in 1935. The next year Ethiopia, including the Ogaden, was proclaimed part of Italian East Africa. Although Ethiopia was liberated by Free French and British forces in 1941, the Ogaden remained under British administration until 1948.

Border conflict and internal unrest in the Ogaden resumed after Somalia became independent in 1960. The Western Somalia Liberation Front, spurred by Muktal Dahir, used guerrilla tactics to resist Ethiopian rule. The army of Somalia invaded and occupied the region in the second half of 1977, with encouragement from some of the indigenous Somali population. In February and March 1978 Ethiopia, helped by Cuba and the Soviet Union, drove the Somali army out and proceeded to bomb and strafe Ogaden villages as reprisal for their complicity in the invasion. Villagers fled, and by the early 1980s the number of refugees in Somalia from the Ogaden exceeded 1,500,000, most of them women and children.

The region witnessed periodic unrest into the 21st century, and the Ethiopian government had a military presence there for various reasons—including insurgent activities that occurred periodically since the 1980s, tensions after the disputed 2005 general elections, and civil unrest in Somalia and Ethiopia’s intervention there in 2006. One group responsible for some of the recurring unrest with the government was the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which was formed in 1984. Its most well-known attack came in April 2007, when a group of ONLF fighters stormed a Chinese-managed oil exploration facility in Obole; 65 Ethiopians and 9 Chinese workers were killed. The government responded by having the military further crack down on the region. Human rights abuses were committed by both the government forces and the ONLF during their running conflict.

The decades-long strife between government forces and the ONLF in the Ogaden showed signs of abating in 2018. In July a new reform-minded government removed the ONLF from a list of organizations it had designated as terrorist groups. The next month the ONLF unilaterally declared a cease-fire. Then in October the government and the ONLF signed a peace agreement that was intended to end the hostilities and provide a vehicle for the ONLF to pursue its objectives in a peaceful manner.