Ogaden

In the seventeenth century it became a tributary state of the Emirate of Harar.[17] It has been noted that Sir Richard Francis Burton's 1856 account First Footsteps in East Africa, extensively detailing his travels into what is now Ogaden makes no mention of an Ethiopian presence in the region. Geographers mapping out regions of Africa for the British government in the mid to late 1800s would make no reference to an Ethiopian presence in the Ogaden, and maps created before 1884 would note the Ethiopian Empires extent as bounded by the River Awash.[18] During the last quarter of the 19th century, the region was conquered by Menelik II of Ethiopia, who solidified their claim by treaties in 1897.[19] I.M. Lewis argues a subtly different interpretation of this treaty, emphasising that "the lost lands in the Haud which were excised from the Protectorate [i.e. British Somaliland] were not, however ceded to Ethiopia".[20] Independent historical accounts are unanimous that previous to the penetration into the region during the late 1880s, Somali clans were free of Ethiopian and Shewan control.[21]

Warriors from the Ogaden region, 1911

In 1914, Lij Iyasu of Ethiopia appointed Abdullahi Sadiq, governor of Ogaden.[22] Attempts at taxation in the region would be called off following the massacre of 150 Ethiopian troops in January 1915. Due to native hostility the region was barely occupied by Ethiopian authorities until the Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in 1934 and the Wal Wal incident in 1935.[23] Ethiopia exerted little presence east of Jijiga until 1934 when an Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission attempted to demarcate the treaty boundary. This boundary is still disputed.[24]

After the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1936, Ogaden was attached to Italian Somaliland, becoming the Somalia Governorate within the new colony of Italian East Africa. Following the British conquest of this colony, the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement placed Ogaden under temporary British control. The British sought to unite Ogaden with British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland to realize Greater Somalia which was supported by many Somalis.[25] Ethiopia unsuccessfully pleaded before the London Conference of the Allied Powers to gain the Ogaden and Eritrea in 1945, but their persistent negotiations[26][27] and pressure from the United States eventually persuaded the British to cede Ogaden to Ethiopia in 1948. The last remaining British controlled parts of Haud were returned to Ethiopia in 1955.

During the 1963 Ogaden Revolt the first major armed resistance by Somalis to Ethiopian rule began in the region after imperial authorities had attempted to tax the population. The revolt and brutal counterinsurgency campaign that followed would result in the deterioration of Ethio–Somali relations and lead to the first war between the two nations during 1964.

Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) fighters in the Ogaden

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

During the new region's founding conference, which was held in Dire Dawa in 1992, the naming of the region became a divisive issue, because almost 30 Somali clans live in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The ONLF sought to name the region ‘Ogadenia’, whilst the non-Ogadeni Somali clans who live in the same region opposed this move. As noted by Abdul Majid Hussein, the naming of the region where there are several Somali clans as ‘Ogadenia’ following the name of a single clan would have been divisive. Finally, the region was named the Somali region.[28][29]

Street scene in Jijiga, Somali Region of Ethiopia

In 2007, the Ethiopian Army launched a military crackdown in Ogaden after Ogaden rebels killed dozens of civilian staff workers and guards at an Ethiopian oil field.[30] The main rebel group is the Ogaden National Liberation Front under its Chairman Mohamed O. Osman, which is fighting against the Ethiopian government. Some Somalis who inhabit in the 'Ogaden' claimed that Ethiopian military kill civilians, destroy the livelihood of many of the ethnic Somalis and commit crimes against the nomads in the region.[31] However, testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs revealed massive brutality and killings by the ONLF rebels, which the Ethiopian government labels "terrorists."[32] The extent of this war can't be established due to a media blockade in the 'Ogaden' region. Some international rights organizations have accused the Ethiopian government of committing abuses and crimes that "violate laws of war,"[33] as a recent report by the Human Rights Watch indicates. Other reports have claimed that Ethiopia has bombed, killed, and raped many Somalis in the Ogaden region, while the United States continues to arm Ethiopia in the United States' ongoing War on Terror in the Horn of Africa.[34][35] [36]

The Ogaden is part of the Somali Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets ecoregion. It has been a historic habitat for the endangered African wild dog, Lycaon pictus;[38] However, this canid is thought by some to have been extirpated from Ogaden.

The Ogaden is a plateau, with an elevation above sea level that ranges from 1,500 metres in the northwest, falling to about 300 metres along the southern limits and the Wabi Shebelle valley. The areas with altitudes between 1,400 and 1,600 metres are characterised 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.[39] 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 percent of their cattle.[40]