aabe siyaad made our army the third strongest army in africa ( after south africa and egypt ) and we took on the combined forces of ethiopians, cubans, and russians. somalia once again made history since it became the first country outside of europe to experience airiel envelopment ( a process where a large army of men and their heavy equipment are parachuted in behind enemy lines to surround them )
They fought bravely in Jijiga but at the end they lost the war.
There is a story in Cuba which tells that when the cubans signed in 1988 a peace treaty with Somalia ending the Ogaden War,everybody in the ethiopian and cuban fields were very happy for this victory in which Siad Barre resigned all his claims about this land.
But the Cuban Gral Ochoa was not celebrating the victory,when someone asked him about this position:
He told the soldier:We won the war but we didnt break the somali spirit,Ethiopia will see them again.
