Poem in living Memory of Dr Dolaal

Dearest Brothers ONLF,
I really felt my heart broken. I know Dr Dolaal very well and had several discusions, various communications, telphone chats about the plights of our nations. His loss remains immessurable and his legacy lives with us forever. We raise his anthem and slogan untill we see our nations liberated.

Poem in living Memory of Dr Dolaal
By Kambata Xoola, Sidama National


O!! Ogadenia, O!! Ogadenia the land of heroes,
You’re dynamic land -whose people’s heroism,
Draws the attention of the global nations,
Whose resistance shaken barbaric Abyssinians,
Please listen to me your ears wide open!!


Tell me what tragedy has unfolded,
Explain to me why bad news has been rumoured,
Don’t hid from me if you have explanation,
Tell me why you have allowed this to happen,
To your ultimate hero a pride to his nation!!


O!! you hero; an icon of freedom struggle,
Whose principle was indefatigable,
Whose intellect was formidable,
Whose purpose was liberating its people,
You ultimate hero Ogaden Somali Dolaal,
Your enthusiasm was eternal and
remains between us active and alive!!


Though why, let me ask you why you hero?
Why death for you before you see your peoples freedom?
Why eternal rest for you before you achieve you Objectives?
Why death for you who’s inspiration to all?
Why have you decided to remain silent
While your people needs you more?
Why did you allow your enemies to rejoice?
Why didn’t say ‘no’ to the death angels?
Why did you make us feel in the middle of desert?
Why did you go away bearing the burden of the nation
at this needy time?


I know your indefatigability and heroism
I know your unshakable believe in your people’s liberty
That doesn’t surrender to defeatism!!


Yes, you have dreamt day and night seeing your people free
You have envisaged this in your decry
Yet you given-in before that all,
My heart goes with you forever dearest comrade Dolaal!!


Yet I believe that your fellow country men and women,
Will raise your slogan to free your land,
To uphold your undying courage and principles,
Your determination and heroic resistance spirits,
That’s shaken the foundation of the colonisers,
Until the enemy is made to learn appropriate lessons!


O!! Yes, O! Yes, I truly swear!
I remain appreciating your principles and values,
I announce your slogan to the global nations,
The sufferings of your nation and other peoples,
Under the Abyssinian brutal colonisers,
With strong conviction and courage
to continue to teach lessons the brutalisers!!


But, but still I argue unequivocally that,
Death is ultimate death for those who have already dead,
Death is curse for those who have already surrendered,
Death is eternal for those who torture defenceless,
Death is punishment for those who brutalise helpless!!


Yet, you have passed away to live eternally,
You left us with living memory and immortal legacy,
You thought us how to defend our freedom and liberty,
You have produced hundreds of millions to stand against brutalizers,
To punish those who torture and massacre your people,
To expose their hidden secrets and
Democracy decorated ugly faces,
You remain in every ones all round lives,
Although the shock about your sudden-rest forever reverberates!!


Therefore, Sincerely,
I send you a living greetings and swear not to surrender,
I solemnly promise to be your principles defender,
With your people and the others subjugated nations,
We shall bring an end for Abyssinian occupiers!!
We promise to keep your dream alive,
By making your spirit amongst us survive!!
By making you heroic resistance amongst us survive!!


With deepest Condolences in Living Memory of Dr Dolaal,
(On behalf of the Sidama nation)
By Kambata Xoola, Sidama National

Oil Exploration in the Ogaden

The Ogaden National Liberation Front has ascertained that certain multinational Oil corporations are intent on exploiting Ogaden fossil fuel resources in alliance with the current Ethiopian regime that is committing genocide and War Crimes in Ogaden. Currently certain companies are clearing of all vegetation an area equal to 1600 sq. Km. in Cagarweyne and Miir-Khalif near Wardheer, displacing thousands of the nomadic population and destroying the scarce vegetation in a vulnerable ecology. Besides destroying the livelihood of the rural population in the affected areas, these companies are filling the coffers of this regime and financing its criminal activities in occupied Ogaden.
This in turn has encouraged the regime of Meles Zenawi to undertake a scorched earth policy in the Ogaden and commit genocide in the Ogaden. The sites these companies operate at are guarded by mechanised Ethiopian Army troops who make fortifications and forcefully evict the local population by killings, rape, detention and destruction of property.
Thus these companies are accomplices to the Ethiopian regimes crimes and are directly involved in the on-going genocide in the Ogaden.

Furthermore, in order to accommodate these immoral and gluttonous rushes for Oil in Ogaden, Ethiopia killed, raped and illegally detained thousands of Ogaden civilian and imposed economic and aid blockade at a time of when there was a full blown draught in the Ogaden.

Ethiopia is violating both International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Ogaden. These rights had been enshrined in the UN Charter and international laws since the end of World War II and have benefited many colonised and oppressed nations of the world; however, they have deliberately been deprived of the Ogaden people. Today Ethiopia is denying the Ogaden people their right to life and development while both the UN and the AU are turning a blind eye.
Furthermore the current regime in Ethiopia is bent on further usurping their natural resources, and these multi-national companies are party to this heinous crime perpetrated against a colonised stateless people.

Since ONLF has persistently warned these unscrupulous multinational companies and their governments, it is very clear that they are not only manifestly disregarding the plight of the Ogaden people but are actively participating in the violation of the Human and Political rights of the Ogaden people, the Ogaden National Liberation Front has been left no alternative but to take all measures necessary to protect the inalienable rights of the Ogaden people.

Ogaden National Liberation Front

ONLF, the African Fighters for Ogaden´s Liberation and Democracy

Ogaden has lived over the past two years under conditions similar to those befallen on the Kosovars in the terrible winter 1998 – 99; parts of the mercilessly tyrannized land have been carpet-bombed by the military aircraft of Africa´s bloodiest tyrant, the uncivil Tigray thug Meles Zenawi, who boasts to be the preferred interlocutor of the - detrimental to US interests - Ass. Secretary Jendayi Frazer.
The longer Jendayi Frazer stays in her position the better for China´s interests in Africa; this situation, at the time of the Lhasa insurgence, must take a short end.

In the same way the Kosova Liberation Front (KLA) represented the most valiant and honorable representation of the desire of the Albanian Kosovars for Freedom, Justice, Liberation and Self-Determination, the Ogaden National Liberation Front struggles for Freedom, Democracy, Respect of the Human Rights, and Independence for the long tyrannized, deprived, and massacred.

Ogadenis.
Fraudulent, and Corrupt US Administrators Slandering ONLF.

Contrarily to what an impartial observer could possibly accept, prepaid agents working in the US administration attempt to diffuse the rumor that the ONLF is a terrorist organization, eventually assassinating people in Ogaden. This is a typical black propaganda that has been attested in various parts of the world; in the same way the KLA was falsely accused of terrorist acts (that in fact were a mere self-defense against the criminal Serbian state terror machine), the Tibetan monks have been disreputably accused of terrorism by the Chinese tyrants.


It is truly odd how the dictatorial regime at Addis Ababa expels one international NGO after the other on the ground of cooperation with the ONLF (which automatically means that the Ogadeni Front is a trustworthy interlocutor for Human Rights activists of global caliber), and these fraudulent and corrupt US administrators store money on Swiss bank accounts by defaming the Righteous and Honorable Struggle of a Nation for Liberation.
If we examine the origin of the money these corrupt US administrators and supposedly academics make, we realize that we attest one of the most squalid cases of politically immoral behaviour; the money is paid by Abyssinian ambassadors and consuls, who are all Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians hired by the racist state machine in order to ceaselessly promote their filthy tribal interests at the detriment of the outright majority of the subjugated nations of Abyssinia, the Ogadenis, the Oromos, the Afars, the Sidamas, the Kambatas, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Agaws, the Anuak, the Wolayitas and others.

In fact, the racist Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian elites not only attempt to perpetuate the anti-Kushitic, anti-African tyranny that they imposed on all the aforementioned, subjugated nations, but they also immorally, illegally and inhumanly occupy positions of representatives of those whose extermination they have undertaken in an all-committed and most determined way. And they disreputably call themselves ´Ethiopians´ to demonstrate cultural ´authenticity´, whereas for more than a century they undertook an anti-Ethiopian, anti-Kushitic, anti-African Cultural Genocide.
Contrarily to what eventual falsifications and black propaganda may diffuse, the ONLF cadres, spread in Ogaden and the Diaspora, incessantly work for the utmost benefit of all the oppressed Ogadenis, for their freedom, for their liberation, and for their prosperity in a democratic, tolerant and open society.

To better illuminate the ONLF cadres´ approach to their National History, Identity and Perspectives, and to highlight the parallels existing between the Struggle of Kosovars and the Pledge of the Ogadenis, we publish here integrally a Press Release issued yesterday by the ONLF Foreign Relations Bureau. As the text encapsulates the History of Ogaden, and reveals the tyrannical methods used by the Abyssinian elites, the urgency for Ogaden´s secession and independence becomes plainly understood.
Will be continued………….

Ogaden National Liberation Front :O.N.L.F"

ONLF Position Paper on the Current Dire Situation in the Horn of Africa
The Ogaden National Liberation Front is a grass-root organisation that was created by Ogaden youth activists and civic organisations that rebelled against the meddling of both the Somali government and foreigners from every corner of the world and made the Ogaden Somali people pawns to further other's political agendas. From its inception to date ONLF caters to nobody but the interest of the Ogaden Somalis.

ONLF is a national liberation front that fights for the rights of the Ogaden Somalis to self-determination in order to decide their future as is enshrined in the universal declaration of Human rights and considers Ethiopia as a colonial state that took part in the European Scramble for the colonisation of Africa in the 19th century.
Menelik's letter to the Berlin conference clearly states that Abyssinia (Ethiopia) does not intend to stand idle while Europe partitions Africa and that Menelik demands his share. Apart from this rhetoric Abyssinia had no means to materialise this dream, but the then world powers of that time installed him in the Ogaden by providing him with arms and men and by embargoing the Somali people in the Horn from external supplies as is happening today in another form and under another pretext. Despite all this the Ogaden Somalis resisted and restricted Menelik to the Harar area until the second world war, when the victorious allies disarmed the Somalis in the Ogaden, while gradually re-arming and training new Ethiopian army and handing the disarmed Ogaden people and territory to Ethiopia over a period of 10 years, giving the last part in 1956.

The Ogaden Somalis started their struggle and within few years threatened the New Ethiopia. Again foreign intervention and arms changed the direction of the struggle of the Ogaden Somalis. The Regime in Addis Ababa was advised to divert the attention of the world community that was increasingly anti- colonialism and anti-oppression from sympathising and supporting the just struggle of the Ogaden Somalis by blaming and attacking Somalia and turning the issue into a border problem. The new inexperienced Somali Government fell easily into that trap and from that day onwards the Ogaden cause turned into a border dispute and so-called Somali expansionism. The Ogaden Elders leading the liberation struggle, who were poorly educated and unaware of the forces arrayed against them, were no match for the regional and international forces that demonised and misrepresented the struggle of the Ogaden people.

In the late seventies the budding intellectuals and students from the Ogaden who were scattered in the region around the Horn started to agitate for the revitalisation of the national struggle. This coincided with the renewal of the rhetoric between the two military regimes in Somalia and Ethiopia that was vying for the control of the Horn.
Somalia sensing the budding struggle and sense of revival in the Ogaden struggle and the weaknesses of the regime in Addis Ababa hijacked the struggle and defeated easily the Ethiopian army and captured most of the Ogaden. Cuban troops and Warsaw Pact pilots and aeroplanes defeated the Somali army and reinstated Ethiopian occupation in the Ogaden. While all this was happening leading intellectuals and activist students were languishing in Somali prisons for resisting against Somali government intervention in the struggle of the Ogaden Somalis, knowing well the negative impact this would have on the national struggle.
From that day onwards the Ogaden Somalis decided to untie their fate from Somalia and pursue an independent struggle that clearly differentiates between Somalia and the Ogaden. Thus ONLF was founded on the principle that the Ogaden people are independent and sovereign and have the right to decide their destiny without bowing to any strings from any quarters.

After the fall of the two governments in Somalia and Ethiopia in the early nineties, the new regime in Addis Ababa faced a serious dilemma vis-à-vis the Ogaden cause. There was no alibi to use against the Struggle of the Ogaden Somalis for self-determination. There was no Somali government to blame. A democratic wind was blowing all across the world. Even while ONLF was testing the claim of the new regime of Meles Zenawi that self-determination is attainable through peaceful means, Meles was preparing his scapegoats against the Ogaden Somalis by encouraging the creation of religious organizations such as Itihad-Al-Islam in the Ogaden. He then provoked Al-Itihad-Islam, to take arms against his regime. Furthermore, Meles started dangling the religious card and started claiming that he was fighting Muslim fundamentalists. This gave him the pretext to attack ONLF and dismantle the peaceful political process that was unfolding in the Ogaden.

Despite the regime's efforts to paint itself as championing the cause of uprooting Muslim fundamentalism in the horn, neither the international community nor the different African nations in Ethiopia that were victims of Meles's dictatorial regime bought into his rhetoric. Somalis, Oromos, Amhars, afars, Sidamas and Even his Tigrai tribe, who were tired of dictators pitying them against each and keeping them in perpetual poverty and at war were approaching each other and charting peaceful routes to end the senseless carnage, lack of representative governance and denial of rights of peoples by dictators.

ONLF believes in the right of all nations to self-determination, the rule of law and representative government that comes through democratic practice and one person one vote and the separation of religion and government. The Ogaden Somali people are Muslims and have a right to practice their religion peacefully without prejudice to any other religion or group. ONLF uses defensive combat to defend itself against the Meles militias and the Ogaden people and does not conduct or condone any terrorist act against anybody. ONLF does not have any agendas outside its borders and does not undertake any armed action outside its borders.

ONLF laments the senseless waste of human lives perpetrated by successive Ethiopian regimes and believes that it is in the best interest of all people inside Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa to resolve differences through dialogue and peaceful negotiations. This is possible only if the regime in power decides to stop the endless cycle of violence that it always opts for in or order to deal with political dissent and learn the civilised way of conflict resolution. ONLF bears no grudge against any people in Ethiopia and regards them as their African brothers and knows that the responsibility of the victimisation of the Ogaden people rests solely with the successive Ethiopian regimes. ONLF will pursue the rights of the Ogaden Somalis and will spare no effort in trying to find a peaceful solution to the Ogaden problem regardless of the constant aggression from the regime in Addis Ababa. ONLF will engage all forces in Ethiopia and will take part in any effort that leads to a change in the current situation in Ethiopia regardless of political differences as long as the other parties are ready to forgo any bias and come with open mind that can tolerate differences.

As ONLF has stated in its press release ( http://www.onlf.org/pressAug062006.htm ) regarding the invasion and occupation of Somalia by Meles, It believes that the current adventurism of Meles brings more harm than good to the whole region of the Horn of Africa. Both the Somali people and the peoples of Ethiopia have succeeded in putting behind the hatchets provided by self-serving regimes that disregarded them and wasted their youngsters in the hundreds of thousands. For the first time the African people in Horn of Africa, especially the peoples in both Ethiopia and Somalia were basking in new found brotherliness and cessation of hostilities as peoples but unfortunately the current debacle by Ethiopia has created suspicion and fear among all communities in the Horn of Africa. Meles Zenawi, who failed to adhere to the rule of law and keep power by democratic means, had opted for violence inside and outside Ethiopia, instead of solving the age old problems that he inherited and ushering a new era of peace in the Horn of Africa. Creating outside enemies and threats is an old Machiavellian ploy that is familiar throughout history, and blaming and attacking government- less Somalia has become an easy target for Meles after failing to quell internal rebellion from the Ethiopian people or defeating the Liberation fronts. Despite the utterances of some leaders of the Islamic courts, there was no Somali force capable of threatening Ethiopia's security. It was clear to all reasonable people with no vested interests in the Horn of Africa, the claim that IC forces, composed of volunteer youths and elderly businessmen, with informal ties to different clan militias whose interests often conflicted one another could mount any meaningful campaign against the battle seasoned and well armed Ethiopian army. The haste with which Meles rushed to instigate this aggression and capture Somalia shows how desperate he is to divert attention from his internal failures.

ONLF deeply regrets the turn of events in Somalia and strongly urges that The Somali people should be left alone to find a viable solution to their problems. The meddling of Ethiopia and other forces at different times has kept the Somali people apart. Every time that a just solution posses itself, unwarranted interference exacerbates the situation and throws everything back to square one.

The people of Somalia are the sole determinants of who their legitimate representative is. It is not the place of the ONLF to determine this for them. The ONLF has said on multiple occasions that Ethiopia is determined to undermine the sovereignty of Somalia and frustrate efforts aimed at achieving peace and a lasting reconciliation in Somalia . The ONLF bears no ill will toward any Somali political party, organization or the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).We are not a party to the Somali conflict and encourage all the respective political entities in Somalia to reconcile their differences for the sake of their nation. We believe that the TPLF led regime in power in Ethiopia has repeatedly violated the arms embargo on Somalia by arming various actors thereby encouraging continued conflict among Somalis for over a decade. We call Ethiopia to respect the UN resolution and withdraw from Somalia immediately.

ONLF believes that the use of force to bring change in Somalia will only exacerbate the situation and the only way forward is peaceful dialogue between all concerned parties without the interference of external actors. The last thirty years provides barometers that show force does not work in Somalia. We strongly advice the TFG and other Somali organisations to bury their hatchet and solve their differences through dialogue. We strongly urge the international community to force Ethiopia out of Somalia and help the warring parties commence dialogue in neutral venue far away from the Horn of Africa.

ONLF would like to draw the attention of the international community to the fact that an ethnic cleansing of the Ogaden people has started in Somalia , Kenya and Ethiopia . Although ONLF is a pan Somali clan that represents all Somalis in the Ogaden, The current Ethiopian regime targets the Ogaden people, which it considers as the backbone of the armed struggle against its forces in Ethiopia . Mr. Zenawi's regime has consistently been abusing and systematically conducting pogroms in the Ogaden against this people for the last fifteen years and now that it got access to Somalia , all the Ogaden refugees in Somalia are being branded as terrorists and hunted down mercilessly. It is not the first time that Ogaden refugees were massacred and with no recourse to justice. In 1991 when the Somali government fell half a million Ogaden refugees were left at the mercy of the marauding crowds in Somalia and many were mercilessly massacred in Northern and central Somalia, and the UN under whose protection they were supposed to be, abandoned them to their fate and never even took the trouble to mention their demise. Now that the same fate is repeating itself, again as usual, the international community is again watching the repeat of the same calamity for members of the Ogaden Somalis. Even the Kenyan government is now participating in collecting Somalis from the Ogaden who are fleeing The Ethiopians across the Somali border and turning them over to Ethiopia as has happened recently. Kenya turned over to the 'Transitional government of Somalia ' five people from Ogadenia who were immediately transferred to Addis Ababa . This blatant violation of their human rights heralds a new trend that can be equated with what happened to the Jews in Europe in the Second World War- a pogrom of the Ogaden people in the Horn of Africa ! We appeal to the international community to avert this disaster in the making as it would not be of any value lamenting in hindsight as is the custom nowadays.

We particularly ask the UN, United States, AU, EU and Arab league to intervene in time and take this issue seriously in order to avert a catastrophe in the making against a poor stateless and voiceless nomadic people whose rights is being trampled over without recourse to any justice from any quarter.

Finally we take this opportunity to stress that ONLF is the sole legitimate representative of the people of Ogaden. No political organization originating from the Somali Republic has the authority to speak for the people of Ogaden, or mount any meaningful action in the Ogaden; ONLF has a principled stand against any interference from any quarter in the affairs of the Ogaden Somali people. The destiny of Ogaden people resides with no other people than themselves. Also we would take this opportunity to remind any Government in Somalia and the international community that Ogaden Somali people are an integral part of the Somali Nation in the Horn of Africa and any ruler who ignores or transgresses against the rights of the Ogaden Somalis is building phantom castles in the air. It is unfortunate that the fate of Somalia and the Ogaden are intertwined, as fear of Ogaden success always drives Ethiopia to victimise Somalia and the Somali people. It is time that the international community look seriously into the root cause of the never ending cycle of violence between Somalia and Ethiopia which is the Ogaden Cause and address it in a just and viable way.

The status quo which has been unchanged for decades brought nothing but misery to all concerned.

May Justice Prevail! i wish my beloved land Peace and Prosperity..

The Ogaden War 1977-1978

State entry Exit combat force population Losses
Cuba 1975 1987 15000 8700000 2000
Ethiopia 1964 1987 217000 42000000 15000
Rebels 1964 1987 50000 1000000 5000
Somalia 1964 1987 50000 5000000 15000

The SNA"Somalia National Army" never recovered from its defeat in the Ogaden War. The battles to retake and then defend the Ogaden stripped the Somali armed forces of many troops, much of their equipment, and their Soviet patron. For the next decade, the SNA sought unsuccessfully to improve its capability by relying on a variety of foreign sources, including the United States. The Ogaden War therefore remains the best example of the SNA's ability to mount and sustain conventional military operations.
Before the Ogaden War, the most striking feature of the 23,000-man SNA had been its large armored force, which was equipped with about 250 T-34 and T-54/T-55 Soviet-built medium tanks and more than 300 armored personnel carriers. This equipment gave the SNA a tank force more than three times as large as Ethiopia's. The prewar SAF also was larger than Ethiopia's air force. In 1976 the SAF had fifty-two combat aircraft, twenty-four of which were Soviet-built supersonic MiG21s . Facing them was an Ethiopian Air Force (EAF) of thirty-five to forty aircraft. Ethiopia also was in the process of acquiring several United States-built Northrop F-5 fighters from Iran. At the outbreak of fighting, Ethiopia had approximately sixteen F5A /Es.
After the Somali government committed the SNA to the Ogaden, the conflict ceased to be a guerrilla action and assumed the form of a conventional war in which armor, mechanized infantry, and air power played decisive roles. The SNA quickly adapted its organization to battlefield realities. The centralized Somali logistics system controlled supplies at battalion level (600- to 1,000-man units) from Mogadishu, an unwieldy arrangement given Somalia's limited transportation and communications network. To facilitate operations, the logistics center and headquarters for forces fighting in the northern Ogaden moved to Hargeysa, the SNA's northern sector headquarters. Before the war, all Somali ground forces had been organized into battalions. After the conflict started, however, the standard infantry and mechanized infantry unit became the brigade, composed of two to four battalions and having a total strength of 1,200 to 2,000 personnel.
Somalia's greatest victory occurred in mid-September 1977 in the second attempt to take Jijiga, when three tank battalions overwhelmed the Ethiopian garrison. After inflicting some heavy losses on Somali armor, Ethiopian troops mutinied and withdrew from the town, leaving its defense to the militia, which was incapable of slowing the Somali advance. The Ethiopians retreated beyond the strategic Marda Pass, the strongest defensive position between Jijiga and Harer, leaving the SNA in a commanding position within the region. Despite this success, several factors prevented a Somali victory. Somali tank losses had been heavy in the battles around Dire Dawa and Jijiga. Moreover, because the EAF had established air superiority over the SAF, it could harass overextended Somali supply lines with impunity. The onset of the rainy season hampered such air attacks; however, the bad weather also bogged down Somali reinforcements on the dirt roads.

After watching Ethiopian events in 1975-76, the Soviet Union concluded that the revolution would lead to the establishment of an authentic Marxist-Leninist state and that, for geopolitical purposes, it was wise to transfer Soviet interests to Ethiopia. To this end, Moscow secretly promised the Derg military aid on condition that it renounce the alliance with the United States. Mengistu, believing that the Soviet Union's revolutionary history of national reconstruction was in keeping with Ethiopia's political goals, closed down the U.S. military mission and the communications centre in April 1977. In September, Moscow suspended all military aid to the aggressor, began openly to deliver weapons to Addis Ababa, and reassigned military advisers from Somalia to Ethiopia. This Soviet volte-face also gained Ethiopia important support from North Korea, which trained a People's Militia, and from Cuba and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, which provided infantry, pilots, and armoured units. By March 1978, Ethiopia and its allies regained control over the Ogaden.

Mengistu's government was unable to resolve the Eritrean problem, however, and expended large amounts of wealth and manpower on the conflict while rebellion spread to other parts of Ethiopia. Similarly, Siyaad proved unable to return the Ogaden to Somalian rule, and the people grew restive; in northern Somalia, rebels destroyed administrative centres and took over major towns. Both Ethiopia and Somalia had followed ruinous socialist policies of economic development, and they were unable to surmount droughts and famines that afflicted the Horn during the 1980s. In 1988 Siyaad and Mengistu agreed to withdraw their armies from possible confrontation in the Ogaden..

OGADENIA

Ogaden (pronounced and often spelled Ogadēn) is the international name of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by some Somalis.

The region, which is around 400,000 square kilometres, borders Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.[1] Important towns include Jigjiga, Awbere, Degehabur, (Dhagaxbuur in Somali), Gode (Godey), Jijiga (Jigjiga), Kebri Dahar (Qabridahare), Fiq, Shilavo (Shilaabo), Kelafo, and Werder (Wardheer).

The Ogaden is a plateau, with an elevation above sea level that ranges from 1,500 meters in the northwest, falling to about 300 meters along the southern limits and the Wabi Shebelle valley. The areas with altitudes between 1400 and 1600 meters are characterized as semi-arid, receiving as much as 500-600 mm of rainfall annually. More typical of the Ogaden is an average annual rainfall of 350 mm and less. The landscape consists of dense shrubland, bush grassland and bare hills.[2] In more recent years, the Ogaden has suffered from increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, which has led to an increasing frequency of major droughts: in 1984-85; 1994; and most recently in 1999-2000, during which pastoralists claim to have lost 70-90 per cent of their cattle.
History
Ogaden was part of the Muslim Ifat Sultanate in the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries. The borders of the sultanate extended to the Shewa - Addis Ababa area. The region developed its own Adal kingdom from late 14th to the last quarter of the 19th century. There was an ongoing conflict between the Adal kingdom and the Christian Kingdom of Abyssinia throughout this time. During the first half of the 16th century, most Abyssinian territory came under the rule of Adal, when Imam Ahmed Gurey, the leader of Adal's Army, took control.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the region was conquered by Menelik II and Ethiopia solidified their occupation by treaties in 1897.

I.M. Lewis argues a subtly different interpretation of this treaty, emphasizing that "the lost lands in the Haud which were excised from the Protectorate [i.e. British Somalialand] were not, however ceded to Ethiopia".[6] In practice, Ethiopia exerted little administrative control east of Jijiga until 1934 when an Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission attempted to demarcate the treaty boundary. This boundary is still violently disputed.

The region was annexed to Italian Somaliland in 1936 by Italy, after their conquest of Ethiopia. Following their conquest of Italian East Africa, the British sought to let the Ogaden be unified with British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland, to realize Greater Somalia which was supported by many Ogaden Somalis.[8] Ethiopia unsuccessfully pleaded before the London Conference of the Allied Powers to gain the Ogaden and Eritrea in 1945, but their persistent negotiations and pressure from the USA eventually persuaded the British in 1948 to abandon all of the Ogaden except for the Haud, and a corridor called the Reserved Area stretching from the Haud to French Somaliland (modern Djibouti). The British returned these last parts to Ethiopia in 1954.

In the late 1970s, internal unrest in the Ogaden resumed. The Western Somali Liberation Front, spurred by Muktal Dahir, used guerrilla tactics to resist Ethiopian rule. Ethiopia and Somalia fought the Ogaden War over control of this region and its peoples.

In 2007, the Ethiopian Army launched a military crackdown in Ogaden. The main rebel group is the Ogaden National Liberation Front under its Chairman Mohamed O. Osman, which is fighting against what they see as an Ethiopian occupation. Somalis who inhabit Ogaden claim that Ethiopian military kill and torture civilians, destroy the livelihood of many of the ethnic Somalis and commit crimes against the nomads in the region. [10] Numerous international rights organizations accuse Ethiopian regime of committing abuses and crimes that "violate laws of war,"[11] as a recent report by the Human Rights Watch indicates. [12] According to US House of Representatives committee, the Ethiopia has killed people, tortured civilians and committed crimes against the nomads in the region.

O.N.L.F

Introduction

The Horn of Africa has been marked by struggle for decades. Behind some of the violence, including an April 2007 attack on a Chinese oil rig in Ethiopia, is the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The ONLF, a group of ethnic Somali nationalists based in eastern Ethiopia, takes up the banner of past groups seeking self-governance for ethnic Somalis throughout the region. Their attacks threaten the delicate stability of the region and could set off a new chill on much-needed foreign investment.
What is the Ogaden National Liberation Front?
The ONLF describes itself as a “grassroots social and political movement” that serves as an “advocate for and defender of” Somalis in Ogaden, a region of eastern Ethiopia with a large ethnic Somali population, against Ethiopian regimes. Founded in 1984 by members of a variety of ethnic Somali liberation groups, it can also be described as a separatist rebel group fighting to make Ogaden an independent state. Its main tactics include countering government influence in the region and using violent force, including kidnappings and bombings. The ONLF is believed to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of government forces. ONLF supporters say the group does not use bombing as a tactic and has a policy of deliberately not targeting civilians in its military operations. While some experts consider the ONLF’s activities terrorism, the U.S. State Department does not include the OLNF on its Foreign Terrorist Organization list and the group is not on similar lists maintained by the European Union and Britain.
How was the ONLF formed?
The ONLF formed in the wake of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), which lost the support of Somalis living in Ogaden after the 1977-1978 war in which Ethiopia crushed Somali government forces attempting to gain control of areas with large ethnic Somali populations. WSLF members helped found the ONLF and then recruited their former colleagues to join them. By the time the WSLF was disbanded, the ONLF had gained increased support among ethnic Somalis residing in Ethiopia. In 1991, the ONLF joined the political process, and performed well in regional parliamentary elections. The group’s political wing later merged with another political party to form the Somali People’s Democratic Party, which remains a powerful political force in the region.
What does the ONLF want?
The ONLF is a nationalist movement that seeks self-determination for ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden region. This is in contrast to other national movements in the Horn of Africa, which have sought to create a “Greater Somalia” in which all areas populated by Somalis are unified into one country. The ONLF also claims that the Ethiopian government has committed human rights abuses in the Ogaden, including interfering with relief work and international aid intended for the area, and that it wants retribution. Ethiopian officials have repeatedly denied such charges and allege the ONLF is responsible for the abuses.
What has the ONLF done?
The ONLF has instigated ambushes and guerrilla-style raids against Ethiopian troops since its inception, and has kidnapped foreign workers presumed to be agents or supporters of Ethiopia’s government. It has launched attacks on Ethiopian military convoys, and it has been accused of bombings in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. A particularly fierce dispute has long simmered between the central government and ONLF over the presence of energy companies in the region; the ONLF insists it will not allow the exploration of oil and gas in the area until the region gains independence, and threatens foreign companies that try. Tensions over the issue reached a new high on April 24, 2007, when ONLF gunmen killed at least seventy-four people, including sixty-five Ethiopians and nine Chinese oil workers, and kidnapped seven, on an oil field in Abole, a remote region of Ethiopia populated by ethnic Somalis. China has attempted to increase its investments in Africa in an effort to secure future energy supplies. The ONLF took responsibility for the attack on its website and claimed that the violence had not been without warning.
Should the United States worry about the ONLF?
The ONLF is not on any of the U.S. State Department terrorist lists, and as it stands now it does not pose a threat to the United States. However, Ethiopia is Washington’s closest ally in the region, and should the United States ever decide to intervene in the conflict on behalf of Ethiopia, or any other country that wants to drill for oil there, it could face violent opposition. Additionally, there have been rumors of ties between the ONLF and al-Qaeda, which would involve the United States in an entirely different manner. ONLF supporters deny any link with al-Qaeda and criticize religiously motivated violence.