By: Velar Grant
Somalilandsun – The UK’s Somali Ogaden community protested outside the Ethiopian Embassy in London demanding the end of genocide atrocities in Ethiopia. Ogaden region in this country has been ravaged by famine, droughts, tribal conflicts and successive wars.
Ogaden is the territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia and remain a home to about 8-10 million ethnic Somalis.The region, which is twice the size of England and Wales together has been ravaged by famine, droughts, tribal conflicts and successive wars between secessionists and regimes of Ethiopian highlanders.
In 2007, the Ethiopian Army launched a military crackdown in Ogaden after Ogaden rebels killed dozens of civilian staff workers and guards at an Ethiopian Oil field.The notorious prison locally known as “Jail Ogaden”, about 80 kilometers east of the city of Harar, has been the scene of repeated atrocities carried out by the Ethiopian prison guards.The Western Somali Liberation Front, spurred by Muktal Dahir, used guerilla tactics to resist Ethiopian rule.
The extent of this war can’t be established due to a media blockade in the Ogaden region.A recent report by the Human Rights Watch indicates crimes and law viloation by Ethiopian regime.Other reports showed further abuses,bombings and murders carried out by the ONLF rebel group.
