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'Ogaden' (pronounced and often spelled ''Ogadēn'', ) is a part of the Somali Region in Ethiopia. Sometimes known as "Abyssinian Somaliland," some locals refer to it as 'Ogadenia' (Somali: ''Ogaadeeniya''). The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The fact that some Somalis call the entire Somali region of Ethiopia "Ogadenia" is a cause of much friction in the region, because there are significant other clans in the Ogaden, such as the Sheikhal, Hawiye and Marehan. For this reason the titles "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by supporters of the concept of Greater Somalia.
The region, which is around 200,000 square kilometres, borders Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.^[1] Important settlements include Degehabur (Dhagaxbuur in Somali), Gode (Godey), Jijiga (Jigjiga), Kebri Dahar (Qabridahare), Shilavo (Shilaabo) and Werder (Wardheer).

Contents

History

See also

Notes

Links

History

The region was incorporated into Ethiopia by Menelik II during the last quarter of the 19th century, and its boundary with British Somalialand was one of the first boundaries of Ethiopia to be fixed by treaty (June, 1897).^[2]
I.M. Lewis argues a subtly different interprestation of this treaty, empahsizing that "the lost lands in the Haud which were excised from the Protectorate [i.e. British Somalialand] were not, however ceded to Ethiopia".^[3] In practice, Ethiopia excerted little administrative control east of Jijiga, except for occasional raids on the inhabitants, until 1934 when an Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission attempted to demarcate the treaty boundary, an act which at last alerted the local inhabitants to what had happened.^[4]
Following their conquest of Italian East Africa, the British sought to partition the Ogaden from Ethiopia, intending, according to historian Bahru Zewde, to add it to "British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland, to form what was christened Greater Somalia."^[5] Ethiopia unsuccessfully pleaded before the London Conference of the Allied Powers for the return of the Ogaden and Eritrea in 1945, but their persistent negotiations at last forced the British in 1948 to evacuate all of the Ogaden except for the northeastern part (called 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.^[6]
In the past, secessionist activities have involved the political goals and militaries of Ethiopia and Somalia. In the late 1970s, both countries fought the Ogaden War over control of this region and its peoples. The Somalis who inhabit Ogaden claim that the Ethiopian military kill civilians, and destroy the livelihood of many of the ethnic Somalis. Numerous international rights organizations accuse Ethiopian regime of committing abuses and crimes that "violate laws of war,"^[7] as a recent report by the venerable Human Rights Watch reports. Because of these actions, at present, the main rebel group is the Ogaden National Liberation Front under its Chairman Mohamed O. Osman, which is fighting to liberate the Ogaden from what they see as Ethiopian occupation. In 2007, the Ethiopian Army launched a military crackdown in Ogaden.^[8]

See also

★ Ogaden Basin

Notes

1. Gebru Tareke, "The Ethiopia-Somalia War of 1977 Revisited," in Board of Trustees, Boston University, ''The International Journal of African Historical Studies''. Boston University African Studies Center, 2000, p. 636.
2. Bahru Zewde, ''A History of Modern Ethiopia'' (London: James Currey, 1991), p. 113.
3. I.M. Lewis, ''A Modern History of the Somali'', fourth edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2002),p. 59
4. Lewis, ''Moden History'', p. 61
5. Bahru Zewde, p. 180.
6. Bahru Zewde, p. 181.
7. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/02/ethiop16327.htm
8. Why We Don't Hear About the Conflict in the Ogaden: When an American reporter started digging, he was forced out of Ethiopia

Links

★ Ogaden online

★ ONLF