Ogaden National Liberation Front

Encyclopedia : O : OG : OGA : Ogaden National Liberation Front

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is a separatist rebel group fighting to make the region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia an independent state. Because Ogaden is populated by ethnic Somalis, the ONLF claims that Ethiopia is an occupying government. The ONLF is composed mainly of members of the all the Somali clans located in the Ogaden Somali territory.

Technically, the armed wing of the ONLF is the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA).

History

Founded in 1984 by Abdirahman Mahdi, the Chairman of the Western Somali Liberation Movement Youth Union, Mohamed Ismail Omar (WSLF ), Sh. Ibrahim Abdalla(WSLF ), Abdi Ibrahim Geelle(WSLF-Trade Union), Abdirahman Yusuf Magan(WSLF) and Abdullahi Muhumed Sa'di-all(WSLF) anmd hidden members from diffderent sectors of the liberations struggle, the ONLF is currently led by Chairman Mohamed O. Osman. ONLF was formed after WSLF leadership lost touch with the rank and file of Ogaden Somali people, after the defeat of Somalia by the Warsaw pack in 1997 war of the Ogaden. ONLF systematically recruited WSLF members and replaced WSLF in the Ogaden as the WSLF support from Somalia dwindled and finally dried up in the late eighties. By 1993 ONLF fully consolidated its support among all the Somalis in all the Somali territory under Ethiopian rule.

The ONLF announced elections in December 1992 for the Somali District Five in Ethiopia, and won 80% of the seats of the local parliament. ONLF nominated the candidates for the district's presidency and vice-presidency and the Executive body and the parliament elected them in a majority vote. ONLF elected officials ruled the territory until the end of the charter period. When Ethiopia tried to force ONLF to accept a new constitution and ONLF refused, the regime in Ethiopia declared war on ONLF. The ONLF continues to operate in the Ogaden as of 2006 and is the target of full scale military operations by the Ethiopian army after ONLF stated that it will not allow chinese oil companies to extract oil from the Ogaden. In 2005 Ethiopia proposed peace talks with ONLF and ONLF accepted on the condition that talks be held in a neutral country and with the presence of a neutral arbitrar from the international community, but the talks broke down due to Ethiopia's insistence that the two parties meet without an arbitrator and to be held in countries closely allied to it, that are in or around the Horn of Africa.ONLF became a part of an alliance for Freedom and Democracy in June 2006.

External links

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