Ogaden - History

Geographical area in SE Ethiopia; dry plateau intermittently watered by Fafen Shet and Jerer Rivers; part of Abyssinia, 1890; part of Italian East Africa, 1936–41; largely inhabited by Somali-speaking nomads; area claimed by Somalia in 1960s; Somali invasion in 1977 repulsed by Ethiopian forces; fighting continued throughout the 1980s.

For the ethnic group, see Ogaden people.

Ogaden (pronounced and often spelled "Ogadēn") is a part of the Somali Region in Ethiopia.

History

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).

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." 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).

In the past, secessionist activities have involved the political goals and militaries of Ethiopia and Somalia.