Bileh Jelan @bilehjelan
Addis Abeba, February 01/2021 – The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) was established as a successor of the Western Somali Liberation Front ( WSLF) in 1984. WSLF was a key player in the 1977 Ethiopian-Somali war and was backed by Somalia’s dictator Mohammed Siad Barre to achieve about his grand vision of uniting all Somali territories and bringing it under the sovereignty of one political entity Greater Somalia or in Af Soomaali, Soomaaliweyn.
The war saw the dissolution of the WSLF and its key members founded its successor ONLF. The ONLF, as its predecessor, took part in the Ethiopian Civil War (1974-1991), and their participation culminated in the party’s role in the 1991-1994 transitional government and subsequent ruling of the newly constituted Somali National Regional State. But ONLF’s rule in the Somali region lasted only for 7 months when then president of the region, Abdullahi Muhammed Sa’di, was removed from office. This was largely attributed to internal conflict within the party and external frictions with the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) at the center. The EPRDF then eliminated its opponents in the newly established regional state, pushing the ONLF to take up armed struggle before its leaders’ December 01/2018 return to Ethiopia to pursue peaceful political struggle. The party’s return was made possible following a historic peace agreement signed in Asmara, Eritrea, in October 2018.
Huge following
The ONLF has a huge following among the Somali population of the Somali Regional State, especially the Ogaden clan (a major sub-clan of Darood) that constitute a majority in the Somali Regional State. But that support, along with the official name of the party, has made Somalis of other clans wary of its activities. It is also one of the arguments its detractors often use to attract Somalis who don’t belong to the Ogaden clan and are residents of the region to oppose the ONLF.
This huge support seen in recent rallies held by the party in the Somali Regional State did not only raise alarms among its opponents, including the regional branch of the ruling Prosperity Party, but it failed to prevent the party from showing signs of fractures.
” Intra-party conflict and changes in leadership has also continued long after the party was removed from the terror groups list by the Ethiopian Parliament…”
The ONLF is not new to internal fractures; after the military campaign by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) was carried out between June 2007 and May 2008, for example, the party suffered huge loses with its foreign relations director being killed as a result of the military campaign prompting several senior members of the party led by Abdul Wali Hussien to break away and form their own faction by appointing one of the group as chairman for the new ONLF, according to their claims. Intra-party conflict and changes in leadership has also continued long after the party was removed from the terror groups list by the Ethiopian Parliament and returned home in 2018. For a close observer, ONLF has seen a series of events that showed early signs of fraction within its ranks.
It all began with what seemed to be a resignation
In November 2019, a month shy of the first year anniversary of ONLF leadership’s return to Ethiopia, its long serving chairman, Admiral Mohammed Omar Osman, stepped down. He served the party in his capacity as chairman for more than 20 years, a period where he oversaw, among many other things, the 2007-2008 conflict in the Somali Region.
