Ogaden
Ogaden (pronounced and often spelled "OgadÄ"n") is a part of the
Somali Region in
Ethiopia. Sometimes known as
Abyssinian Somaliland, some locals refer to it as
Ogadenia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic
Somali and
Muslim.
The region, which is 369,000 square kilometres, borders
Djibouti,
Kenya, and
Somalia, and has a population of 4,500,000 people. Important settlements include
Kabri Dahar,
Jijiga ,and
Qabribayah.
The region is at the center of the volatile
Horn of Africa.
It was colonized by
Great Britain as a protectorate from the last quarter of the
19th century to the first half of the
20th century, before it was annexed by Ethiopia, although the boundary of British Somalia was one of the first to be fixed by treaty (June, 1897).
[Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia (London: James Currey, 1991), p. 113.]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 ominously christened
Greater Somalia."
[Bahru Zewde, p. 180.] 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.
[Bahru Zewde, p. 181.]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. At present, the main separatist group is the ONLF under its Chairman
Mohamed O. Osman.
