Ogaden War ended - March 15, 1978

On this day in 1978, the last of significant unit of Somali troops withdrew from Ogaden.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day in History Class, a podcast where we one day
ship nugs of history straight to your brain through your earhole.
Today it's March. The day was March fift ninety eight.

(00:28):
The Ogoden War ended when the Western Somali Liberation Front
was defeated and Somali troops were withdrawn from the Ogoden region.
Ogdden is a region in eastern Ethiopia that lies between
the Ethiopian Highlands and the border between Somalia and Ethiopia.
The Ogoden was along a disputed region. As part of
an agreement made in nineteen forty eight, Ethiopia regained control

(00:52):
over the Ogoden region from Britain. In nineteen sixty the
Trust Territory of Somali Land and the State of Somali
Land united to form the Somali Republic, also known as Somalia.
A government was formed and Somalia ratified a new constitution
in nineteen sixty one, but in nineteen sixty nine, Somali

(01:14):
President Abdirashid Ali Shader Marki was assassinated. The assassination was
followed by a military coup orchestrated by the Somali Army.
The Supreme Revolutionary Council or s r C became the
new governing body of Somalia. The SRC renamed the country
the Somali Democratic Republic and banned political parties. It also

(01:37):
suspended the constitution, abolished the National Assembly, and supported national
liberation movements. At the same time, in Ethiopia, Hila Selassie
was still ruling as the Emperor of Ethiopia after taking
the throne decades earlier. In nineteen thirty, the Ogaden Liberation
Front launched a rebellion against the government in eastern Ethiopia,

(01:59):
and nineteen sixty three so Molly government troops supported them.
A border war soon broke out between Ethiopia and Somalia,
but after a couple of months the two countries agreed
to a cease fire. But in nineteen seventy four, Emperor
Hila Celastie was overthrown by the DARE, also known as
the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia. One of the

(02:22):
groups that emerged out of the ensuing political instability was
the Western Somali Liberation Front or w s l F.
The w S LF was made up of Somali's living
in the Ogaden region. In February of nineteen seventy seven,
the w s l F launched an insurgency against the
Ethiopian government in the Ogoden region. The Somali government gave

(02:46):
the group military assistance. Months later, thousands of Somali government
troops and w s LF rebels invaded the Ogodden and
went up against Ethiopian forces. The Soviet Union, Cuba, and
South Yemen, as well as other communist countries, supplied military
assistance to Ethiopia. With all its aid, Ethiopia managed to

(03:09):
drive back Somali troops and the w s LF. On
March nine, ninety eight, the Somali National Army was ordered
to withdraw from the Ogaden region and retreat back to Somalia.
On March fifteenth, the last significant unit of Somali troops
went back to Somalia. As Ethiopia had captured most of Ogaden,

(03:30):
Somalia gave up his claim to the region. More than
ten thousand people were killed during the conflict. By the
early nineteen eighties, there were more than a million refugees
in Somalia from the Ogoden region. The w s LF
remained active in the Ogoden, but by the late nineteen
eighties the group had become defunct. I'm each chef code

(03:51):
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