Etiópsko-somálska vojna o Ogaden

1977-1978
Ethiopia, as one of the oldest state formations in Africa, has been surrounded on three sides by hostile Arab and Muslim territory for a millennium. As a country with a mostly Christian population, Ethiopia has been the target of frequent attacks. In the 16th century it was Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi, or "Ahmed the Left-Handed″ who led an expedition against the Abyssinian Empire (Ethiopia) to conquer the territory. After the defeat of Ahmed in the 16th century, nomadic tribes began to migrate seasonally to the Ogaden, bringing their cattle in search of pasture. They were of Somali ethnicity and were Muslim. The region is still inhabited by their descendants today. The Somali nomads did not recognise any central government and tried to administer the territory they lived in according to their tribal customs and rights, but until the 19th century there were no major conflicts between the Somali clans and the Abyssinian empire in whose territory they lived. In 1855, following Richard Burton's expedition to the area, Great Britain began efforts to become the protector of the east coast of Africa and thus secure the Suez Canal. Thus the territory inhabited by Somali clans was divided into the Ogaden belonging to Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland belonging to Italy, British Somaliland Protectorate and British Northern Frontier Districts belonging to Great Britain, and French Somaliland belonging to France. Between 1940 and 1950 Ogaden, Italian Somaliland, British Somaliland Protectorate and British Northern Frontier Districts were united into Greater Somalia under the administration of Great Britain. In 1954, Ogaden and Haud reverted again to Ethiopian administration. After the establishment of the Somali Republic in 1960, relations between the two countries cooled, partly because of the Somali idea of "Greater Somalia" and partly because of Ethiopian reluctance to relinquish disputed territory. The establishment of borders between the two states prevented nomads from nomading to their traditional grazing lands and led to the first border skirmishes in 1964 where Ethiopia retained formal control of the Ogaden. After 1969, the ruling regime oriented itself towards the Soviet Union, which supported it with military supplies and, indirectly, in the idea of a "Greater Somalia". After the overthrow of Haile Selassie in 1974, Haile Mariam Mengistu took over the government of Ethiopia. The chaos that accompanied the fall of the Haile Selassie regime encouraged the Mogadishu government to support separatist Somali movements in the Ogaden especially the WSLF (Western Somali Liberation Front). Following Ethiopia's war in Eritrea in 1975 and the disastrous drought in the Ogaden, the WSLF attacked several Ethiopian bases in the Ogaden. Moscow's support for the new Ethiopian regime alienated Barre. He still had plans to capture the Ogaden territory where one-fifth of the Somali population lived. In early 1977, the Soviet Union tried to hold peace talks between Somalia and Ethiopia, which foundered right at the Ogaden issue. Where neither of the representatives of the two regimes wanted to retreat from their positions. A few weeks after the talks, Fidel Castro visited Somalia and declared the Soviet bloc's support for the new Ethiopian regime. The Soviet Union initially tried to support both countries to increase its influence in the country but in June 1977 Ethiopia accused Somalia of directly supporting the SNA rebels. Somalia defended itself by claiming that it was "volunteers" from the SNA (Somali National Army ) assisting the WSLF. Thus, at the end of 1977, the combined SNA - WSLF forces had 50,000 fighters (of which 15,000 belonged to the WSLF). In August 1977, the USSR suspended arms shipments to Somalia, and three months later Somalia terminated its treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union and expelled all Soviet war advisers from the country.


The Soviet Union's decision to support Ethiopia in the Ogaden War was the imaginary tongue in cheek. The Somali army never recovered from the defeat of the Ogaden. It lost many units of their equipment and also its Soviet ally in those battles. In the subsequent period of rebuilding the army, the regime relied on various international sources, including the US. The Ogaden war with Ethiopia provided the answer to the SNA's (Somali National Army ) ability to launch and conduct a conventional military operation. In the early 1970s, the SNA had 9 mechanized battalions equipped with more than 300 BTR-40, BTR-50 and BTR-152 armored fighting vehicles, 4 tank battalions with about 150 tanks T-34 and T-54/T-55, a special forces "commando" battalion, 2 artillery detachments (76 mm guns and 122 mm howitzers), 2 heavy anti-aircraft artillery detachments (100 mm guns) and 3 light anti-aircraft artillery detachments (37 mm guns and 14.5 mm machine guns). After signing a cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, the SNA rearmed and reorganized 4 tank battalions (T-54/T-55 and Centurion) created 4 mechanized brigades (BTR-152 and BTR-60) which each had its own artillery section (122mm howitzers) and the aforementioned tank battalion. It further formed 2 rocket launcher detachments (BM-21). In addition to Soviet military aid, contributors were Egypt, which supplied 12 torpedo boats, small arms and trained aircrews, Sudan, which trained staff officers and communications and engineer expertise, then China, Syria and Iraq. In the air force, the force ratio was about the same SAC (Somali Air Corps) had 52 aircraft including 24 MiG-21, 10 MiG-17, about 10 Il-28 and a few Mi-8 helicopters and its rival EAF (Ethiopian Air Force) had 35 aircraft including 16 F-5A from Iran and the US.


After the SNA's involvement in the conflict, it ceased to be a guerrilla war but an open local conflict fought by regular armies, with tank, mechanized and air units playing the main role. The SNA tried to adapt its structure to the needs of the war - the logistics headquarters and the headquarters of the fighting units were moved from Mogadishu to Hargeysa. However, supplying the fighting forces remained a problem due to inadequate roads in the country. Prior to the Ogaden conflict, the SNA's standard SNA unit was a battalion (600-1,000 soldiers); after the outbreak of the conflict, the SNA switched to a brigade structure (2-4 battalions), with 1 brigade having 1,200-2,000 soldiers. This also caused supply problems due to the SNA's pre-war logistics setup. In the summer of 1977, however, the SNA-WSLF forces achieved several victories. d On 13 July 1977, the first of the Somali mechanized brigades crossed the Ogaden border. In July 1977, they captured the town of Gode on the Shabeelle River, finding themselves 550 km inland in Ethiopia and controlling 60% of the Ogaden territory. In mid-August, Ethiopia admitted that the SNA-WSLF controlled 90% of the disputed Ogaden territory. But in August 1977 the SNA also suffered two defeats when they attempted to capture the towns of Dire Dawa and Jijiga. At Dire Dawa an attack by a mechanized brigade reinforced by a tank battalion was repulsed, and at Jijiga the SNA lost more than 50 tanks from 3 attacking tank battalions. The SNA's greatest Somali victory came in mid-September 1977 in the second attack on Jijiga. The three tank battalions attacking the town inflicted heavy casualties on the Ethiopian garrison, which withdrew from the town, leaving the defense of the town to the Ethiopian militias, who had no chance of slowing the Somali advance. Ethiopian forces withdrew to the strategic Marda Pass line, the strongest defensive position between Jijiga and Harare, leaving the SNA in a position of advantage in the Ogaden. On November 27, 1977, the Soviet Union established an air bridge and Soviet military aid began to flow into Ethiopia. No fewer than 225 Il-18, An-12B, An-22, and Il-76 rocket launchers Il-76 were transported from Tashkent, via Baghdad, Aden and Masawa to Addis Ababa.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/23044]BM-21[/url], T-55 and T-62, BMP-1, 130mm, 155mm guns for three divisions of the Ethiopian army. For the next two weeks, Soviet military aid planes landed at the airport in the Ethiopian capital every 20 minutes day and night. Despite its success in the second offensive at Jijiga, the SNA suffered heavy losses, especially in tank battalions, and in addition the SAC lost air superiority over the area. The impending rainy season hampered major air operations but also made logistical support to the SNA in the occupied areas impossible, mainly because of the poor condition of local roads. From October 1977 to January 1978, 20,000 SNA - WSLF personnel attempted to capture Harer, where Ethiopian forces were massed. This force of 50,000 was supplemented by tanks and artillery systems and trained by 1,500 Soviet advisers and supported by an 11,000-strong Cuban contingent. The SNA did not have the forces left for a decisive assault on the city, so they deployed around the town of Harer and awaited a counterattack. On January 8, 1978, a counterattack began on Harer where the combined Ethiopian-Cuban forces succeeded in destroying one Somali mechanized brigade. The counter-attack continued in February 1978 when the combined Cuban-Ethiopian forces marched towards Jijiga under complete air superiority. The attack was directed from two sides from the north and east, and after two days of fighting the SNA lost another 3,000 men. Within a week Ethiopia controlled all the major towns in the Ogaden area and on 9 March 1978 Siad Barré ordered the SNA to abandon the Ogaden. After the SNA withdrew, the WSLF reverted to guerrilla warfare tactics, and by May 1980, although it controlled a good part of the Ogaden, Ethiopia eventually succeeded in defeating the WSLF militarily and gaining formal control of the Ogaden.


Somalia's defeat in the war for the Ogaden ended Barré's dream of a Greater Somalia. The loss of Ogaden and Djibouti in the 1977 referendum forced the Somali regime to rethink its foreign policy, and as a result of the defeat, the first opposition movements against Barré emerged.

Approximate casualties in the conflict

Cuba 2000
Ethiopia 15,000
WSLF 5000
Somalia 15000



Sources:
www.onwar.com
http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_oga.html
www.acig.org
Ezekiel Rediker : THE OGADEN: A MICROCOSM OF GLOBAL CONFLICT



Prelinked by Buko1 on 12/30/2006
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Etiopsko-somalska-vojna-o-Ogaden-t37007#196075 Version : 0
1977 - 1988 Ethiopian-Somali Ogaden War


Map of the area over which bloody fighting was fought between Ethiopia and Somalia. The Ogaden is predominantly inhabited by Somalis. It became part of Ethiopia as a result of the colonial partition of Africa at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Armed conflict between Somali resistance movements and Ethiopian government forces continues there to this day.
Etiópsko-somálska vojna o Ogaden - zdroj BBC

zdroj BBC
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Etiopsko-somalska-vojna-o-Ogaden-t37007#174651 Version : 0
Fighting in the Ogaden continues today, as evidenced by intermittent media reports.....
July 18, 2006July 18- An anti-aircraft unit from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) shot down an Mi-17Ethiopian Air Force[/url] helicopter near Gaba Gabo, a village 70 km northeast of the town of Qabri Dahar. The pilot, Captain Girma Teka, a veteran of the Ethiopian Air Force, managed to make an emergency landing with the machine. Eight senior officials of the Ethiopian Ministry of Defence were also supposed to be on board. According to the rebels, all 26 passengers - officers of the Ethiopian Ministry of Defence - died and were buried in Debre Zeit. The Ethiopian side does not talk about casualties.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Etiopsko-somalska-vojna-o-Ogaden-t37007#196134 Version : 0
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