Global InformationOgaden War information
| Ogaden War | |||||||
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| Part of the Ethiopian Civil War, the Ethiopian–Somali conflict, and the Cold War | |||||||
 Cuban artillerymen prepare to fire at Somali forces in the Ogaden | |||||||
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| Strength | |||||||
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Beginning of war: 35,000–47,000 soldiers[15] 37 aircraft, 62 tanks, 100 armored vehicles[7] Later: 64,500 soldiers[16] 1,500 Soviet advisors 12,000–18,000 Cuban soldiers[17][18] 2,000 Yemeni soldiers[19] |
Beginning of war: 31,000[20]–39,000 soldiers[21] 53 aircraft, 250 tanks, 350 armored vehicles, and 600 artillery guns[22][23] Later: 45,000–63,000 soldiers[21][16] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Ethiopia: 6,133 killed[24] 8,207 wounded[25] 2,523 captured[25] Equipment losses: 23 aircraft[24] 139 tanks[24] 108 APCs[24] 1,399 vehicles[24] Cuba: 163 killed[25][26] 250 wounded[27] 6 tanks[27] South Yemen: 90 killed 150 wounded[27] Soviet Union: 33 advisors killed[28] |
Somalia: 6,453 killed 2,409 wounded[24] 275 captured[24] Equipment losses: 34 aircraft[29] 154 tanks[29] 270 APCs[29] 624 vehicles[29] 295 artillery guns[29] | ||||||
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25,000 civilians killed[26] 500,000 Somali inhabitants of Ethiopia displaced[30][31] | |||||||
The Ogaden War, also known as the Ethio-Somali War (Somali: Dagaalkii Xoraynta Soomaali Galbeed, Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ሶማሊያ ጦርነት, romanized: ye’ītiyop’iya somalīya t’orinet), was a military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia from July 1977 to March 1978 over the sovereignty of Ogaden. Somalia's invasion of the region, precursor to the wider war,[32] met with the Soviet Union's disapproval, leading the superpower to end its support for Somalia to fully support Ethiopia instead.
Ethiopia was saved from defeat and permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies worth $1 billion, the arrival of more than 12,000 Cuban soldiers and airmen[33] and 1,500 Soviet advisors, led by General Vasily Petrov. On 23 January 1978, Cuban armored brigades inflicted the worst losses the Somali forces had ever taken in a single action since the start of the war.[34]
The Ethiopian-Cuban force (equipped with 300 tanks, 156 artillery pieces and 46 combat aircraft)[26] prevailed at Harar and Jijiga, and began to push the Somalis systematically out of the Ogaden. On 23 March 1978, the Ethiopian government declared that the last border post had been regained, thus ending the war.[35] Almost a third of the regular SNA soldiers, three-eighths of the armored units and half of the Somali Air Force had been lost during the war. The war left Somalia with a disorganized and demoralized army as well as a heavy disapproval from its population. These conditions led to a revolt in the army which eventually spiraled into the ongoing Somali Civil War.[36]
- ^ "Ogaden Area recaptured by Ethiopian Forces with Soviet and Cuban Support – International Ramifications of Ethiopian-Somali Conflict – Incipient Soviet and Cuban Involvement in Ethiopian Warfare against Eritrean Secessionists – Political Assassinations inside Ethiopia". Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives). 1 May 1978. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ Lefebvre, Jeffrey Alan. Arms for the horn : U.S. Security Policy in Ethiopia and Somalia. University of Pitsburg Press. p. 188. OCLC 1027491003.
- ^ "Arms and Rumors From East, West Sweep Ethiopia". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
East-Germany-Ethiopiawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Prentis Woodroofe, Louise (1994). "Buried in the Sands of the Ogaden: The United States, The Horn of Africa and The Demise of Detente" (PDF). London School of Economics and Political Science.
- ^ "North Korea's Military Partners in the Horn". The Diplomat. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
- ^ a b Mekonnen, Teferi (2018). "The Nile issue and the Somali-Ethiopian wars (1960s–78)". Annales d'Éthiopie. 32: 271–291. doi:10.3406/ethio.2018.1657.
- ^ a b Fitzgerald, Nina J. (2002). Somalia; Issues, History, and Bibliography. Nova Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 978-1590332658.
- ^ Malovany, Pesach (2017). Wars of Modern Babylon. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813169453.
- ^ a b Tareke 2000, p. 656.
- ^ Ayele 2014, p. 106: "MOND classified documents reveal that the full-scale Somali invasion came on Tuesday, July 12, 1977. The date of the invasion was not, therefore, July 13 or July 23 as some authors have claimed."
- ^ Tareke 2000.
- ^ Gorman 1981, p. 208.
- ^ Tareke 2009, pp. 204–205.
- ^ Tareke 2000, p. 638.
- ^ a b Ayele 2014, p. 105.
- ^ Gleijeses, Piero (2013). Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4696-0968-3.
- ^ White, Matthew (2011). Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08330-9.
- ^ South Yemen's Revolutionary Strategy, 1970–1985. Routledge. 2019. ISBN 978-1000312294.
- ^ Dixon, Jeffrey S.; Sarkees, Meredith Reid (2015). A Guide to Intra-state Wars. ISBN 978-0872897755.
- ^ a b Tareke 2000, p. 640.
- ^ Tareke 2000, p. 663.
- ^ Muuse Yuusuf (2021). Genesis of the civil war in Somalia. London: I.B. Tauris. OCLC 1238133342.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tareke 2000, p. 665.
- ^ a b c Ayele 2014, p. 123.
- ^ a b c "La Fuerza Aérea de Cuba en la Guerra de Etiopía (Ogadén) • Rubén Urribarres". Aviación Cubana • Rubén Urribarres.
- ^ a b c "ТОТАЛЬНАЯ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКАЯ ВОЙНА. НЕДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНЫЕ ЗАПИСКИ: Война между Эфиопией и Сомали 1977–78 гг. Page 2". Archived from the original on 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ "68. Ethiopia/Ogaden (1948-present)". UCA. 1948-07-24. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ a b c d e Ayele 2014, p. 124.
- ^ "4. Insurrection and Invasion in the Southeast, 1962–78" (PDF). Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-26.
- ^ Evil days: thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia. New York: Human Rights Watch. 1991. ISBN 978-1564320384 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Tareke 2009, p. 186.
- ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 557.
- ^ Pollack, Kenneth Michael (2019). Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–91.
- ^ Tareke 2000, p. 660.
- ^ "The Rise and Fall of Somalia". stratfor.com. Retrieved 8 December 2016.