February 04, 2025

Ethiopia: what’s at issue in the Somali region of Ogaden?

17 minutes

“Growing up in Ogaden, I was surrounded by war - there was massacres and abuses. At a young age, I recall seeing looting and dead bodies everywhere. At the age of 12, I was arrested by government troops and imprisoned along with my whole family.”

Ogaden, or the Somali region, is a remote area of Ethiopia – little known by much of the world.

But in 1970s, Ethiopia and Somalia fought a war over it, and at the start of this century a conflict was waged between rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the central government . A peace agreement was finally reached in 2018 with the ONLF agreeing to give up their arms and the government pledging to allow them pursue their aims politically.

But the ONLF now says it’s reassessing the peace agreement, because the government hasn’t fulfilled its side of the bargain.

Today on Africa Daily, Alan gets the thoughts of a former rebel who set up a support group for her fellow female fighters, and from an academic who lays out why this dispute has proved so difficult to resolve.

Producer: Mohamed Gabobe.

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