Ethiopia Military

Origins of the war: While the cause of the conflict was the desire of the Somali government of Siad Barre to incorporate the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region of Ethiopia into a Greater Somalia, it is unlikely Barre would have ordered the invasion if circumstances had not turned in his favor.

Ethiopia had historically dominated the region. By the beginning of the war, the Somali National Army (SNA) was only 35,000-men strong and was vastly outnumbered by the Ethiopian forces.

Nevertheless, throughout the 1970s, Somalia was the recipient of large amounts of Soviet military aid. The SNA had three times the tank force of Ethiopia, as well as a larger air force.

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History of Ethiopian involvement: The first incursion by Ethiopian troops after the fall of the central Somali government took place in August 1996.

In March 1999, Ethiopian troops seemingly raided the Somali border town of Balanballe in pursuit of members of the Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya group which has been combating to unite Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden region with Somalia.

Afterward, in April 1999 two Somali leaders, Ali Mahdi and Hussein Aideed, said in an official protest to the United Nations Security Council, that heavily-armed Ethiopian troops entered the towns of Beledhawo and Dolo on Friday, April 9, 1999.

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