East Africa Journal | Ethiopia | Dec 2023
Days of the Derg: The Ogaden
Afternoon Prayers had just ended in Haramaya, a small town in the Oromo region of Eastern Ethiopia. returning to the gate at the front of the compound, Abdii puts his shoes and cap back on and picks up his Kalashnikov. He works as a security guard at the head office of a local farmers cooperative and has done so for the last 25 years and has a job in the market selling fruit and cigarettes during the hours the office is shut. He is ethnically Oromo and has lived in the surrounding area for most of his life.
Abdii spoke no English, but did speak Oromo, Amharic (Ethiopia’s national language) and Somali. His boss, the head of the office in that region was able to translate.
Abdii had been born in a small village in Kersa in 1959, not far from Haramaya and lived only the other side of the town today. He explains how he has never left the east of Ethiopia, never even seeing the capital, Addis Ababa. His first language was Oromo, and second was Amharic, all taught by his parents at home. Abdii never attended school and was around 15 when he learnt how to read and write. During this time Ethiopia was experiencing severe food shortages and described how he could always feel his stomach, putting his hand on it whilst speaking. With dissatisfaction at home and a deteriorating relationship with his father, he decided to enlist in the Ethiopian army at 17 in1976.
‘Tough’ was the word he used, biting his teeth, when asked about the training they endured. He was sent to a military training base outside Dire Dawa, recalling how he had to make the journey there from Kersa, which took him almost two days, hitching lifts to get there. He had made a couple of very good friends Buso and Mohammad, who he referred to as his ‘brothers’. Upon completion of training, he was sent on various excursions to the Somali region of Ethiopia on patrols, where there was a guerrilla war between ethnic Somali rebel group the ‘Western Somali Liberation Front’ and the Ethiopian army. He was joined many times by his friends and explained how the first few months were actually ‘Fun’, not seeing virtually any action himself.
The rebel group had initially started attacks in 1975. The Ethiopian Government had accused the Somali President, Mohammad Siad Barre of supporting the rebels, and destabilising the Ogaden Region, something that Barre denied. The group held de-facto rule over the area of the Ogaden. It was in 1977 that the communist leader Mengistu and the Derg took power over the Ethiopian government and clamped down on the rebels.
Abdii remembers the day word got to the barracks about the Derg and the days of confusion about the new government forming. He remembers being lined up outside in formation one afternoon and talked about Mengistu by the head of the base. They were told about communism and the Derg. Life carried on as usual with patrols and various duties until July 1977 Somalia invaded Ethiopia.
Barre feared the new Ethiopian government would try to take back the Ogaden completely so decided to pre-emptively invade the region, sending in tens of thousands of Somali Soldiers. Within weeks Somalia had control over the region, whilst Ethiopian land defences struggled to hold position, despite having air superiority. By August the Somali army was encroaching on Dire Dawa where Abdii was stationed, they had spent the last couple weeks barricading the city with roadblocks, Machine gun nests and hideouts ready to attack the Somalis if necessary. It was in these days of preparation that he said he felt ‘really scared’. The city changed from a bustling lively place to a place ‘waiting to be slaughtered’ Abdii’s boss adds.
It was that month the Cubans arrived in the Ogaden. It was the first time since the Somalis invaded that Abdii felt slightly at ease, having hope they were now reinforced. The Soviet Union also sent advisors and military aid. Since the new Government, The Derg, were communist, many communist nations sent support, and dropping any support for Somalia. “The Cubans were strong” Abdii adds. The Cubans were kept separate a lot of the time from the Ethiopians Abdii accounts but were ‘Fun’ and ‘Amusing’ people when talking and resting with, many had never seen people who were not African and found them to be fascinating.
In the early hours of one morning in late July 1977 they were loaded into trucks and taken to east of Dire Dawa. The Somalis were mounting an attack on the city. Abdii described the day as ‘only fear’, this was the first actual combat that he saw. “The night was loud, I felt so cold” he says. The first day of attacks he never saw a Somali soldier, it was too dark. They were in a strategic location on the northeast of the city, he recalled seeing the bright lights from the attack, a ‘horrible’ light. The attack felt like it went on for hours, until the Ethiopians were able to repel the attack. Throughout the weeks, the Somalis attacked more times in attempts to gain control of the city. Whilst defending the airfield, Abdii first saw the Somali army in person. He said it felt he could not shoot his rifle at first, but they knew they wanted to kill him he adds, “My eyes were closed” talking about aiming and shooting the rifle. He couldn’t sleep for a few days because of it.
“Shooting at targets and shooting at humans, very different”.
A market in Harar.
The 17th of August was the final attack of the Somali army on Dire Dawa. Ethiopian aircraft relentlessly battered the Somali ground forces, taking out many of their tanks and artillery. Abdii illustrates the day with his hands mimicking large explosions and making a sound with it. “By then I used my gun in a good way” meaning he could now look down the rifle and shoot at soldiers without looking away. Abdii jokes how his heart ‘beat more that day than the rest of his life’ and smiles. The Somalis would not attack Dire Dawa again.
For months the Somalis tried to take the city of Harar, not far from where Abdii was born. After Dire Dawa he was stationed in the city where he saw more face-to-face combat. He accounts how each day more and more Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers would arrive to the city boosting their numbers. “The Somalis got weaker; we got stronger”. He tells of how his Kalashnikov rifle at the time became a tool as the longer the war went on the more comfortable, he got to using it against other humans. ‘Hungry and tired’ was how he described himself by the time the Somalis retreated from attacking Harar. His friend Busa stayed with him during his time in the city, Suffering from only an injured ankle for the duration of the combat there.
By the start of 1978, Ethiopian forces had pushed back the Somalis and launched an offensive of the city of Jijiga. His friend Mohammad had been sent on the attack in which ground forces were airlifted into the highlands. Neither Abdii nor Busa ever heard from him again. They were to remain on defensive posts in the eastern Oromo region. “I think he must have been killed” Abdii says “I never found him after [the war]”.
Once the Ethiopians had captured Jijiga, the Somalis faced heavy casualties resulting in Barre calling for a general retreat back into Somalia, During the conflict, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Somalis fled the Ogaden, settling in Somalia. Abdii remained in the army for years after the Ogaden war, the area continued to be unstable, experiencing various spouts of insurgency where he saw some small-scale action but never any all-out battles.
Abdii left the army when he was 32 in 1991, leaving the same time the rule of the Derg came to an end. When asked what his views where about the Derg, he gave virtually no response, just stating that under them they won the war against Somalia, many Ethiopians of that age had views on the government at the time, mostly negative. The years after the army saw Abdii have various jobs, from helping on construction sites, selling on markets and any odd work he could get. He tells how the years after the army where the worst, “Many who join young do not know what to do [when they leave]”. Struggling to feed himself and keep a roof over him, that all changed in 1999 when he found the job as a security guard in Haramaya.
“I am a soldier still; I know how to shoot and use this” holding up his rifle stock. The co-operative housed him until he was able to get his own accommodation a few years after he started. He laughs and tells me the job keeps him feeling like he just joined the army again. As lunch comes to an end and he finishes his coffee, ready to go back to the gate, he tells me “I am very happy here”.
Haramaya.