Word: ogaden
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...declares Abdullah! Abdi, a Somali military commander in the ugly little war that is being fought today in the Ogaden desert region of eastern Ethiopia. After years of sporadic guerrilla activity, the forces of the Western Somali Liberation Front (W.S.L.F.)-backed by their tribal cousins in the Somali Democratic Republic to the east-have been fighting fiercely since July to wrest the Ogaden from Ethiopia, which has controlled it off and on for 400 years...
...regard the Ethiopians as the most persistent of a long line of colonizers that has also included the Egyptians, British and Italians. Over evening fires, the Somalis often recount the exploits of the revered Ahmed Gurey, perhaps the first of the Somali freedom fighters; he attacked Ethiopians in the Ogaden in the 16th century...
...W.S.L.F. wants to liberate the region from Ethiopian rule and unite it with Somalia, whose President, Siad Barre, is a son of the Ogaden. The front claims that it could raise an army of 400,000-roughly the size of the Ogaden's population-if only it had the weapons, and that is probably true. Every nomad seems to carry a rock, a club or a knife. Some have antiquated rifles, and a few proudly display Soviet-made automatic weapons. They are dressed in rags for the most part, but are highly motivated. Reports TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief David...
...guerrillas presently control all of the Ogaden, except the important towns of Harar and Dire Dawa (see map). In late August they ended a 15-day siege of the town of Jijiga (pop. 4,000) with a final push that sent 4,000 mutinous Ethiopian troops scurrying off through the nearby Marda Pass. The fighting zone is now more than 50 miles away, but dust-blown little Jijiga is not yet out of enemy range, as Correspondent Wood discovered on his visit there. "Without warning," he reports, "three Ethiopian jets suddenly screamed over the town, pumping rockets and bombs into...
...then it made the mistake of trying to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa by extending aid to both Somalia and Ethiopia, even though the two were ancient enemies. The volatile Somalis were enraged at the Russians' perfidy and stepped up their support for the Ogaden rebels. Meanwhile, the Soviets have reportedly supplied Ethiopia with MiG-21s and MiG-23s, heavy artillery and rocket launchers...