The Ogaden is a pastoral region within southeastern Ethiopia named for the Ogadeeni, a prominent Somali clan. Though claimed by Somalis, the region was granted to Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II in 1897 by the British after he had taken it in military conquest in 1887. The region was later annexed to Italian Somaliland in 1936, then returned to Ethiopia by the British in 1948 over the protest of some of its inhabitants, which was deeply upsetting to Somali nationalists.
The Ogaden is the site of ongoing conflict between the Ethiopian military and Ogadeeni separatist movements, especially the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which seeks self-government. It is also central to Somali nationalist discourse. The Dervish army of nationalist hero Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdille Hassan fought to regain the Ogaden in the early 20th century. In 1977, President Siad Barre—whose mother was Ogadeeni—launched a war to retake the Ogaden, and numerous other Somali figures and organizations have aimed to reclaim it, including the Islamic Courts Union and al-Shabaab.
In 1992, Ethiopia recognized the Ogaden as one of nine ethnic regions granted regional autonomy with its own local government. Since then, various groups have represented the Ogaden, including the ONLF and the Somali People’s Democratic Party, with significant intervention from the Ethiopian government. The government has been implicated in scores of human rights abuses in the Ogaden which have deepened separatist grievances.
Sources:
Andrew Mawson, “Collective Punishment: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State,” Human Rights Watch (2008), accessed February 19, 2014.