Postby zidane88 » Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:31 pm
Ethiopia: Prospects for Peace in Ogaden Crisis Group Africa Report N°207, 6 August 2013 Page 2II.Ogaden: Ethiopia’s Most Contested Territory The Ogaden is the historical name for much of the current SNRS. Created in 1994,3 it has an official population of 4.5 million,4 predominantly ethnic Somalis, Ethiopia’s third largest nationality (around 6.2 per cent), and “roughly one-third of the widely dispersed Somali nation in the Horn”.5 Kinship ties, expressed through patrilineal clans, still define Somali social and political organisation. The Ogaadeni are a major clan of the Darod and about half the SNRS population; other relevant groups include the Issa, Garre, Jidwak, Isaaq, Bantu and Sheikhal, none of which is numerically dominant over the other. Clan composition varies in the nine SNRS zones (woredas) and theirsub-districts.6The present conflict’s roots are in the Ethiopian empire’s expansion during the second half of the nineteenth century. The traditional Ethiopian state saw the Oga-den – and much of its other lowland peripheries – as a buffer against European im-perialism and a resource, originally for livestock. In the twentieth century, it came to view it additionally as “empty land” for large agricultural schemes and mineral extrac-tion. Most highlanders also viewed the region as a wilderness, lacking civilisation and populated by enemies of their Christian religion; over time this cultural divide became embedded in structural inequalities.7For much of the first half of the twentieth century, the state was manifested through isolated military installations from where imperial soldiers exacted tax levies on live-stock and undertook punitive expeditions against the local population.8 In 1936, Italy 3The 1994 constitution, Article 47, designates SNRS as Ethiopia’s fifth regional state; officials nor-mally refer to it as kilil 5 (region in Amharic), but many inhabitants commonly call it Ogaden. In this report, Ogaden and SNRS are used interchangeably for the state; Ogadeni refers to the region and its inhabitants, Ogaadeni to members of the dominant clan. 4“The 2007 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: National Statistical Summary Report”, Office of Population Census Commission Central Statistical Agency, July 2010, p. 1. Other estimates claim a population of seven million or more. 5John Markakis, Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers (Oxford, 2011), p. 55. This report draws extensively on Markakis’s text since it is the most comprehensive study on relations between the centre and its periphery, the result of many years of field research since the 1970s, including work directly with the federal affairs ministry from 2005-2008. 6SNRS is divided into nine zones (some recently renamed, but most maps use the old names): Liiban, Afdheer, Shinile (now Sitti), Jijiga (Faarfan), Degehabur (Jerer), Wardheer (Dolo), Korahe, Fik (Nogob), Gode (Shabelle). Liiban is a mixed district divided among Garre, Dagodia, Gurre, Gabre, Hawadle, Beyaisle (all Hawiye-related clans) and Rer-Hasan, a Darod-Marehan sub-sub-clan. In Afdheer, a significant majority is Ogaadeni, but other clans include Gherire and Gurre. Sitti has mainly Issa and Gurgurra. Faarfan has mostly Jidwak-Absame (close to Ogaadenis) but also Obo, Isaaq, Gadabursi and Ogaadeni (each controlling a district). The majority in Jerer’s nine districts is Ogaadeni, except one largely Isaaq district. In Dolo,the majority is Ogaadeni, with some Majerteen districts. Korahe and Nogob are largely Ogaadeni, as is Shabelle, with the exceptions of Kalafo and West Imey districts, the latter with a sizeable Bantu presence, and Mustaiil and Fer Fer, inhabited by Sheikhal. This summary of clan presence is only a rough approximation to underline the diversity of clans in SNRS. See also Appendix C. 7Tobias Hagmann and Benedikt Korf, “Agamben in the Ogaden: Violence and Sovereignty in the Ethiopian-Somali Frontier”, Political Geography, vol. 31, no. 4 (2012), p. 2, 4; Markakis, op. cit., p. 15; Tibete Eshete, “The Root Causes of Political Problems in the Ogaden, 1942-1960”, Northeast A
,what is your take on this issue ?
the Ogs can't fk with us. But we won't screw them too deep if they behave well. Faafan is the most important region and we have More influence in this area than Ogs.
