# Insurgency in Ogaden

The Insurgency in Ogaden was an armed conflict that took place from 1992 to 2018. It was waged by nationalist and islamist Somali insurgent groups seeking self determination for the region, primarily the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI). The war in the region began in 1992, when the Ethiopian government attacked AIAI in an attempt to suppress the growth of the organization. In 1994, the ONLF commenced its armed struggle and began publicly calling for an independent 'Ogadenia' state.
Following the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006, the insurgency in the Ogaden significantly escalated after a decade of low-intensity conflict. The military occupation in Somalia coincided with the large scale 2007–08 Ethiopian crackdown in Ogaden. The Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) perpetrated grave human rights abuses against the civilian population in the region, including the widespread burning of villages, extensive wartime sexual violence, and mass civilian killings. International agencies such as the Red Cross were expelled from the Somali region by the Ethiopian government. Human Rights Watch reported the ENDF engaged in scorched earth tactics to fight the ONLF. The war resulted in the creation of the Ethiopian Regional Special Forces in the mid-2000s, which soon proliferated across the country.
After raging for over 25 years, the conflict ended in a peace agreement during 2018 as part of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's reforms. During October 2024, the ONLF announced announced it is reassessing the 2018 agreement, citing a lack of progress on key provisions.

## Background

Coinciding with the European colonial advances in the Horn of Africa during the late 1880s, Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II launched invasions into Somali inhabited territory. The Ogaden region faced the brunt of the imperial military campaigns, during which the Ethiopian Empire imported a significant amount of firearms from European powers. The large scale importation of European arms completely upset the balance of power between the Somalis and the Ethiopian Empire, as the colonial powers blocked Somalis from receiving firearms. Ethiopian administration of the Ogaden was "sketchy in the extreme". Sporadic tax raids into the region often failed and Ethiopian administrators and military personnel only resided in major cities of Jijiga and Harar. Attempts at taxation in the region were called off following the massacre of 150 Ethiopian troops in January 1915.
In the years leading up to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, the Ethiopian hold on the Ogaden remained tenuous. Due to native hostility, the region had nearly no Ethiopian presence until the Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in 1934 and the Wal Wal incident in 1935. The Ogaden region was formally incorporated into Ethiopia after World War II. It was ceded by the British to Ethiopia by 1955 despite protests of the Somalis, who saw the region as a geographical and political continuation of a Greater Somalia. Hopes of a unified Somali state were not put into practice as Ogaden was gradually reincorporated into Ethiopia. An independent Somalia later supported the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), a group formed out of the 1963–1965 Ogaden rebellion. In 1977, the Somali Democratic Republic invaded the Ogaden to support the WSLF and unify the region with the Somali state. After the Somali defeat in 1978, the Ogaden was turned into a militarized zone where population transfers were conducted in order to quell any signs of sedition.

### Post-Ogaden War (1978–1991)

Following the Ogaden War, many supporters of the WSLF became disillusioned with the organizations increasing reliance on Mogadishu and were frustrated by international portrayals of the struggle in the Ogaden as merely a border matter between Ethiopia and Somalia. A new organization, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) was founded in 1984 by six disaffected members of the WSLF and the organization was immediately banned by the government of Siad Barre. During 1980's, the newly formed Somali Islamist group Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI) focused on providing welfare to refugee camps housing Somalis displaced from the Ogaden region following the 1977–1978 war with Ethiopia. While the organization had initially begun as a relief organization among Ogaden Somali populations, its ultimate goal was to free the Ogaden region from what Al-Itihaad and other Somali factions like the WSLF and ONLF perceived to be Ethiopian colonial rule. AIAI opened Islamic schools across refugee camps and mobilizing youth. Consequently the organization had a significant following in the Ogaden region.

### Collapse of Derg regime (1991)

In the meantime the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front overthrew the Ethiopian Derg dictatorship, leading to a period of political instability. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front assumed power by creating a coalition of ethno-nationalist movements from across the country, choosing the previously marginalised Ogaden National Liberation Front as its ally in Ogaden. ONLF's previously exiled leadership returned from exile, gaining the support of local population. Eritrea attained independence in the aftermath of the Eritrean War of Independence, inspiring ONLF to pursue a similar goal for Ogaden.

## Timeline

During June 1991, the first general conference from Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya was held in the Ogaden region, publicly establishing the organization and leadership in the territory. While AIAI had never renounced the use of violence, it first took a policy of cooperating with the directives of the newly formed post-Ethiopian Civil War government. In October 1991, Al-Itihaad formerly registered as an Ethiopian political party. The organization also revealed the existence of its military wing to the government and delivered documents describing its political programme.
On 17 January 1992, at Garigo'an near Garbo, an Ogaden National Liberation Front central committee led by Sheikh Ibrahim Abdallah was elected. This would lay the foundation for an organized and cohesive organization.

### Outbreak of insurgency (1992)

On 11 August 1992, Ethiopian government forces ambushed Al-Itihaad, killing the organizations top leaders and two dozen other high ranking figures. Recent success in curbing the rise of organizations like the Oromo Liberation Front encouraged the Ethiopian government to eradicate Al-Itihaad before it had grown firm roots in the region. Following the killing AIAI quickly regrouped and elected Sheikh Abdulsalam Osman to replace Sheikh Abdulahi Bade, who had been assassinated in the ambush. This marked the beginning of a conflict lasting several months in 1992 that would see a total of nine battle between AIAI and the Ethiopian military, ending in a ceasefire by the end of the year. The ceasefire would hold in the region until 1994.

#### Rise of ONLF (1993–2000)

Since 1992, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) dominated EPRDF sought to curb Somali demands for self-determination by influencing politics in the region. In January 1993, ONLF candidate Abdillahi Mohammed Sadi was elected Somali Regional president by receiving 70% of the votes, Sadi was however sacked by TPLF officials seven months later creating a power vacuum. Tensions between the TPLF and ONLF escalated in 1994.
In 1994, fighting between Ethiopian forces and the ONLF began at Werder, resulting in several days of clashes. Post-1995, armed conflict in the Ogaden sharply increased. During military confrontations between the ONLF and the military, government forces enacted brutal measures that included summary executions, extensive detentions without prosecution, disappearances and torture in a bid to crush the insurgency. In response to heavy handed measures, the ONLF began reaching out to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF). Agreements to coordinate activities with both groups were signed. In response to this development, the EPRDF intensified operations and began labelling these groups 'terrorists'. In a bid to gain control of the region, different Somali leaders were imprisoned or assassinated by the central government. AIAI began fighting alongside the ONLF when Addis Ababa banned the party.
Despite an intensive government military campaign against the ONLF from 1994 to 1996, the organization survived and grew in strength. While the ONLF was effectively composed of numerous differing groups, the governments political interference and brutal counterinsurgency measures led many Somalis in the Ogaden to rally behind it. Previous internal fractures within the organization greatly dissipated in this period, resulting in the ONLF becoming a more cohesive force than it had ever previously been.

### Insurgent build up (2000–2006)

Over the early 2000's the ONLF's military capabilities expanded and the organization began stepping up attacks against Ethiopian military positions in the Ogaden, with a significant escalation in armed conflict occurring during 2005.
On 13 April 2003, ONLF initiated the Operation Mandad, aiming the expulsion of government troops from the districts of Korahey and Dolo. Two days later a battle took place in the towns of Alen and Garas Qalo, security forces suffered 60 fatalities and lost 2 army trucks, 41 rebels were also killed in the fighting. Authorities responded by imposing curfews on the towns of Kebri Dehar, Warder, and Shilabo, 36 suspected militants were also arrested. On 1 October 2005, insurgents launched attacks against government troops stationed in the towns of Hamarro and Fik, killing 4 and injuring 5 soldiers. On 2 October 2005, the town of Gasan and an army base located in the district of Kebri Dehar came under a militant attack, 5 soldiers were slain and 6 wounded. On 19 October 2005, rebels attacked an army encampment in the area of Kudunbur, 11 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded. On 15 November 2005, Ethiopian troops allegedly committed a massacre of 30 civilians and prisoners after the later demanded better treatment from their captors.
On 21 May 2006 the ONLF entered into an alliance with five different Ethiopian opposition groups in an effort to strengthen the resistance to the TPLF dominated central government. Included were the Ethiopian People's Patriotic Front, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the Sidama Liberation Front.

### War in Somalia and escalation of insurgency (2006–07)

Direct links between the ONLF and Islamic organizations within Somalia, in particular Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya, long predates the events of the mid-2000s. The Ethiopian government took advantage of the War on Terror to routinely label opposition movements terrorists, and accused the ONLF of being associated with and linked to Al-Qaeda.
The ONLF had a covert relationship with and was supported by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which had risen to power in Somalia during 2006. The ICU was seen as a 'natural ally'. The Ogaden/Somali Region was at the heart of the dispute between the ICU and the Ethiopian government. A high ranking ICU official had declared following their rise to power that, "The land taken by Ethiopia cannot be forgotten because it is attached to our blood...Ethiopia mistreats the Somalis under their administration." On 23 July 2006, the ONLF announced the downing of an ENDF transport helicopter heading for Somalia and warned that Ethiopian military movements in the region pointed towards an imminent large scale operation. During November 2006, the ONLF declared that it would not allow Ethiopian troops to stage into Somalia from their territories.
On December 23 2006, the ONLF reported attacking Ethiopian military column that was heading to Somalia, destroying several vehicles, inflicting casualties and driving the convoy back. At the start of 2007, the group publicly condemned the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, stating that Meles Zenawi's invasion of Somalia demonstrated that his government had a clear agenda aimed at undermining the Somali sovereignty. ONLF forces started escalating their attacks on Ethiopian military forces during early 2007 in reaction to the invasion of Somalia. The collapse of the Islamic Courts Union government was viewed as a significant blow to the ONLF's ambitions for independence.
In mid-January 2007, ONLF rebels attacked Ethiopian soldiers in Kebri Dahar, Gerbo, and Fiq. On 24 April 2007, the ONLF attacked the Abole oil field, killing 74 Ethiopian troops and several Chinese workers. The Ethiopian government claimed Islamic Courts Union fighters fought alongside the ONLF during the attack on the refinery.

### Crackdown in the Ogaden (2007–08)

In response to the April 2007 ONLF attack, Ethiopian security forces initiated a large scale counter insurgency campaign against the ONLF. Between June 2007 – May 2008 approximately 1,000 people were killed as the opposing faction engaged in combat and committed human rights abuses. On 3 July 2007, an ONLF ambush outside the town of Shilaabo resulted in the deaths of 43 soldiers, the separatists suffered 5 casualties and 8 rebels were injured.
On 22 January 2008, a government official announced the death of former top guerrilla commander Mohamed Sirad Dolal, following an operation in the Denan woreda of the Gode zone. By the time of his death Sirad had left ONLF and operated as a commander of Al-Itihad Al-Islami.
On 3 August 2009, an Ethiopian court convicted Bashir Ahmed Makhtal, an Ethiopian born Canadian citizen to life in prison, on charges of belonging to ONLF. Makhtal denied all allegations, stating that the reason behind his prosecution is his relation to one of ONLF's founding members. On 27 October 2009, an ONLF spokesman accused the governments of Puntland and Somaliland of handing over ONLF rebels to the Ethiopean security forces.
On 11 January 2011, Ethiopian authorities freed 402 previously imprisoned ONLF members as part of a peace deal, previously signed with one of ONLF's factions. On 4 July 2011, government troops killed 15 and detained 6 rebels, 2 Swedish journalists accompanying the militants were also wounded during the engagement. On 2 September 2011, a band of ONLF rebels attacked a military convoy escorting Chinese oil workers, outside the city of Jijiga. The insurgents claimed to have killed 25 soldiers while suffering several casualties, a government spokesman denied the ambush took place.
Between 16–17 March 2012, according to a Human Rights Watch report, Ethiopian special police forces executed 10 civilians and looted dozens of shops in the village of Raqda, the attack came as a retaliation for the recent death of several policemen.
Between 10 – 24 October 2013, ONLF carried out attacks on 13 military outposts in the Korehey and Nogob zones, the faction claimed to have killed 24 soldiers during the operation. On 6 December 2013, government troops engaged insurgents in the Banbaas, Qolaji and Hora-hawd villages, a rebel spokesman declared that 45 soldiers were killed in the battle, as rebels captured caches of weaponry and other equipment.
Between 1 June – 9 July 2014, five Ethiopian nationals were gunned down in the city of Garissa, Kenya. Investigations into the murders revealed the victims to be ONLF members or sympathizers, three Ethiopians and two Kenyans were detained in connection with the murders. The perpetrators allegedly belong to Ethiopian government militias. An ONLF official accused the militias of killing at least 10 Ogadenian refugees between 2010–2011.
On 26 February 2015, a Liyuu police unit skirmished with ONLF rebels in the Las-Galol village south-east of the city of Harar. A day earlier clashes took place in Galalshe, Jigjiga area. The incident took place amidst an escalation in fighting following the death of ONLF commander Mustafe Haybe, two journalists and allegedly 120 government soldiers in recent engagements.

### 2018 peace agreement and post-ceasefire

In 2018, the Ethiopian government launched a number of reforms, part of which were removing the ONLF from its list of banned movements and offering the rebels more attractive peace deals. The ONLF declared a ceasefire in August and signed an official peace deal in October, promising to disarm and transform into a political party. About 2,000 fighters disarmed in the next months, and were given lessons as well as offers to either switch to civilian jobs or become part of security forces.

#### Rising tensions (2024)

Despite the peace deal holding and the ONLF being a legally recognized party, in September 2024 Ethiopian military chief Field Marshall Birhanu Jula accused the front of being an 'enemy of the state' which had been allegedly created by Egypt. The following month the ONLF announced it was reassessing the 2018 agreement, citing a lack of progress on key provisions.
During October 2024 leaders of the ONLF claimed that only 20% of the 2018 peace agreement’s commitments, such as reintegrating former fighters and resettling displaced communities, have been met. The group’s spokesperson, Abdiqadir Hassan Hirmooge (Adani), voiced frustration with Ethiopian government inaction, declaring, 'We maintained peace as agreed, but the government’s failure to uphold its obligations raises serious questions about its dedication to lasting reconciliation.' The ONLF also claims cultural suppression in the Somali region, alleging that Somali elders face pressure to renounce their identity and expressing concern over rumors that Ethiopia might alter the region's official name and flag, perceiving this as a threat to Somali cultural identity. On 20 October 2024, the ONLF withdrew from the Ethiopian National Dialogue commission.

## Human rights situation

A number of non-government organisations have accused the Ethiopian military and police of committing human rights violations. A Human Rights Watch representative compared the actions of Ethiopian security forces to crimes against humanity. Ethiopian soldiers and policemen have reportedly participated in numerous instances of rape, arbitrary detention, selective killings, torture and vandalism. In 2005, Ethiopian troops allegedly destroyed a village populated by the Armak minority, killing the denizens with metal bars. New York Times journalists reporting on the story were detained without charges and had their equipment confiscated. Ethiopia's tight control on the access of independent journalists into the region, has complicated the examination of assertions made by both sides of the conflict. ONLF activists have also claimed that Ethiopian officials used foreign aid as a form of blackmail, purposefully starving thousands of people. The above accusations have been dismissed by the Ethiopian government, which accused NGOs of acting as propaganda tools while completely ignoring abuses committed by the guerrillas.