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when Eritrea got independence Saudi Arabia prepared textbooks consisting primary upto secondary in all subjects in arabic for Erittean education and eritrea refuced to take it . A whole ship currying those books was dumbed into somaliland in 1993, qashinkoodu meelkasta ayuu daadsanaa maqaaxiyaha ayaa afmaris ahaan u bixin jiray

That is what the Ethiopian will tell you.. Onlf was active since the 80's Militarily, I have Many relatives who fought alongside them by the end of the 80's and some even Inside Eritrea, ONLF as an organisation is probarly as old as EPLF, however they didn't have a military Wing Till sometime after the ogadeni war. in the 1980's ONLF leaders were constantly on meetings with the Eplf leaders In sahel region. Some Eritreans even say That article 39 was constructed with the Consultation of the Onlf.

By 1989 the WSLF had ceased to be an effective guerrilla organization within Ethiopia. Siad Barre's decision to restrict the WSLF led to the formation of a WSLF splinter group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), whose headquarters were in Kuwait. Elements of the ONLF slipped back into the Ogaden in 1988 but failed to generate a significant military capability.

The ONLF had several things going for it in 1993 and early 1994. The first was that it had succeeded in forming and promoting a clear philosophy among it’s rank and file which had swelled following the collapse of the Somali government. The second was that since it had not been engaged in armed conflict with the Ethiopian government, years of focusing on indoctrination and recruitment had paid off

The year was 1978. The Horn of Africa had just witnessed the largest mechanized war in Africa since Hitler’s desert Fox, General Rommel rolled his tanks across North Africa. The war was known as the Ogaden War, and it brought Somalia and Ethiopia to the brink of mutual destruction. Ethiopia, backed by thousands of Cuban troops and Soviet “Advisors” succeeded in ejecting Somali regulars sent into Ogaden in support of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) from territory it claimed as it’s owned. Observers at the time point to the fact that what had taken place was a high stakes chess game between the Super Powers in which Somalia and Ethiopia were pawns. At the end of it all, a massive refugee crisis existed and the Somali military, which was no match for Cuban armed troops and their Soviet puppet masters, was in shambles.

But beneath this headline was another story. A deeper story. The people of Ogaden, the very ones whom Somalia had sought to liberate and Ethiopia had claimed as it’s own were witnessed the carnage of war on their own territory and suffered the vicious reprisals of Ethiopian troops after the Somali army had withdrawn.

The WSLF for its part, continued to wage an armed struggle but political understandings between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu meant that material support from Somalia was dwindling. This support had been the lifeline of the WSLF. As such, it was no surprise that Mogadishu also yielded great influence in the leadership and conduct of the affairs of the WSLF.

This fact did not escape some senior members of the WSLF who following the Somali pullout of Ogaden, resented the fact that their struggle’s intensity was largely dictated by Mogadishu.

A NEW PHILOSOPHY: THE EARLY YEARS

It was this feeling of over dependence which lead 6 men, all members of the WSLF to come together in secret for the purposes of creating a new organization which was accountable only to the people of Ogaden and independent of any government in Mogadishu.

However, this simple principle, soon developed into a philosophy whose core elements were:

The Ogaden struggle is not a conflict between Somalia & Ethiopia but rather a struggle between a colonized people and their oppressor.

Only a home grown movement free of foreign influence will be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the people of Ogaden.

The term “Western Somalia” only serves to confuse the issue portraying it as reclaiming land once belonging to the Somalia Republic and as such is not appropriate Using the term Ogaden, as so-called by the British, achieves the objective of identifying a geographical area while rejecting the notion that the struggle is merely a border disagreement between two sovereign states.

Both the Scientific Socialism model of Somalia and the Marxist Leninist model of Ethiopia should not be the economic and social ideology of this truly independent national movement since that opens the door for potential reliance on communist bloc nations thereby allowing future manipulation of the struggle by foreign powers.

A movement for National Self-Determination cannot succeed unless it is democratic at it’s core and has proper mechanisms to ensure democratic changes of leadership and collective decision-making.

The struggle of the people of Ogaden for Self-Determination should go beyond the geo-politics of the Horn of Africa and ascend to the global stage as a legitimate international issue in it’s own right in order for their to be a successful conclusion.

Upon completion of this ideology, the Ogaden witnessed the birth of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on August 15th 1984

Almost immediately, the movement was dismissed as no threat by Ethiopia and looked upon unfavorably by Mogadishu. The first target for the ONLF was to systematically seek out all disgruntled members of the WSLF who had grown weary of outside domination and who were not blinded by Socialist ideologies.[1] The recruitment process was both slow and dangerous. In the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, where many young and educated WSLF sympathizers lived, was fertile ground for recruitment. Yet it had to be done delicately so as not to tip off the expansive intelligence network of the Barre regime. Going more smoothly was the recruitment of students from Ogaden sent to Arab capitals for education under a scholarship program largely set up as a request by Somalia to Arab governments.

In Ogaden itself, the heavy presence of Ethiopian troops backed by newly received Soviet hardware and Cuban foot soldiers made the logistics of recruitment more difficult, yet news of disgruntled WSLF fighters left without supplies was quick to reach young educated Ogadenis in Mogadishu leading them to question the continued viability of the WSLF, to say nothing of the fact that this also brought them a step closer to the philosophy of the ONLF.

Throughout the 1980’s the ONLF continued it’s careful and systematic indoctrination of the youths in Mogadishu and the Middle East. By the late 1980’s, rather large gatherings of former WSLF members were taking place both inside and outside of Ogaden under the auspices of the ONLF.



THE BEGINNING OF AN ARMED STRUGGLE

The ONLF had several things going for it in 1993 and early 1994. The first was that it had succeeded in forming and promoting a clear philosophy among it’s rank and file which had swelled following the collapse of the Somali government. The second was that since it had not been engaged in armed conflict with the Ethiopian government, years of focusing on indoctrination and recruitment had paid off.

The public was agitated in Ogaden. The hopes for a new future after the overthrow of the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Marian were shattered. There was only one avenue left. Armed struggle.

Initially, there were doubts as to whether the ONLF would be able to transform itself from a movement composed largely of students, intellectuals and civilians, into an effective guerilla force. Debates within the inner circle of the ONLF exposed this concern. The leadership was faced with turning political activists into freedom fighters.

After much discourse, it was clear what had to be done. The ONLF needed to seek out and re-activate former WSLF fighters who had largely returned to their homes after years of fighting without supplies and resources following the Somali pullout of Ogaden and the collapse of the Somali state. What was thought to be a difficult marriage of political idealist s and guerrilla fighter actually turned out to be a perfect fit to the joy of the ONLF leadership.

The ONLF now had a military wing. The Ogaden National Liberation Army. Items of immediate concern such as the securing of weapons and supplied proved less difficult than first thought, since Ogaden was flooded with small arms of all sorts. All the ONLF had to do was organize and discipline large numbers of fighters and provide a guiding principle and philosophy. While the military organization was left to former WSLF commanders, ONLF political officers attached to each unit served to solidify the fighters understanding of what exactly they were fighting for. It was here that the battle cry of the ONLF, Unity-Militancy-Self-Reliance-Victor (Midnimo, Mintid, Isku-Tashi, Guul) was branded into the hearts and minds of ONLF fighters.

By mid to late 1994, the Ogaden National Liberation Front had begun armed operations against the Ethiopian government forces stationed in Ogaden

I agree with eritra's attitude to outsiders. Personally, I would remove all foreigners from Somalia and the somali regions in ethiopia and kenya. They are nothing but leeches that live off the sufferings of my people, from so-called aid-workers to big Western diplomats and chinese workers, they are all after the same thing; they want an aid-dependant african country they can manipulate in their war on muslims and hunger for natural resources.