Ogaden Online: The official homepage of Ogaden on the Internet

The brave leaders and fighters of ONLF must not give the ethiopian army an opportunity to drill the land of Ogaden for oil. Once they get that opportunity , the ethiopoians will use money from oil to pacify the strong political movement of the Ogaden people. They will also use this newly found wealth to buy more weapons and armoury for the continued occupation and genocide against the people of Ogadenia. Let us resist the occupation with every blood in our veins and every breath of our lives. Let flush out all those Somalis who work for the enemy by starting killing so-called president of regional quasi-government. There should be no doubt about the aims and aspirations of the Ogaden People. That the only way the tigre will have peacefull night is to let go Ogaden and its people. this will happen with or without the
permission of the tigre hyenas.(Insha-Allah)

VIVA ONLF! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

First and foremost ONLF did not "go back into action". It is a misleading title. The action of ONLF has never ceased since the armed struggle began in 1994. In fact, it has been incrementally increasing in terms of its effectiveness and intensity to the degree that nowadays the woyane army does not dare to come out of its barracks as often as in the early 1990s. The woyanes action are mostly limited in exacting revenge against the unarmed civilians and avoids confronting the ONLF fighters.

Second, Ethiopia and everyone else knows full well that there is no any other organisation fighting in the Ogaden but ONLF. It is simply untrue that there exists other "rebels" in the Ogaden-active or inactive. It is just the usual woyane propaganda of denying that truth and confusing others. It is a known fact that ONLF is a popular and broad- based organisation that the Ogadenis have unreservedly invested both materially and morally and entrusted their hopes and aspirations in them.
In return, ONLF followed an astute diplomatic and political strategies and devised sound military engagement tactics that not only afforded it to weather the initial TPLF onslaught in its infancy years but gradually allowed it to score successive successes in the battlefield and lately enabled the ONLA fighters to herd TPLF in their barracks in the main cities and towns in the Ogaden. It would be interesting to witness what the picture in the Ogaden would look like when ONLF takes the struggle to the next level.

Third and finally, in the Ogaden there is no such thing as Islamists. There has never been radical Islamists and because it is a foreign concept to the Ogadenis it is unlikely that it will ever be tolerated. It is also on the record that ONLF flushed them out when some radicals from neighbouring Somalia tried to cross into Ogaden in the hope of establishing a foothold. Regardless of its form and shape, ONLF and the Ogadenis do not entertain the idea of radicalism and will rightly keep a watchful eye on the otherwise bankrupt but overzealous radicals' activity in Somalia. It did not serve Somalia or elsewhere and has no place in Ogaden.

I traveled to the region late 2007. What I found was that ONLF support is limited to a section of the Ogaden tribe! ONLF virtually has no support among non-Ogadan population. This is not because non-Ogaden Somalis love Ethiopian army, rather this is the result of lack of vision of ONLF leaders. Their narrow tribal mindedness is robing them of greal of support that they would otherwise enjoy among Somali population. ONLF insists that this is by Ogaden, for Ogaden and of Ogaden struggle. Which means other tribes are either outright hostile or at best neutral - no wonder they are making little progress. Another example is lack of discipline among their rank and file. Robery or confistication vechicles is common. Anyone working for regional and administrations - say teacher, engineer etc is targeted and murdered. This means that they have little support among the educated - the very people they need the most! Why kill someone education kids or building a road ( we are not talking about security personnel here!). I saw a 5 year old being raised by his grandmother. His father was killed by Ethiopian army but what upset me most that his mother was killed the ONLF!
ONLF must under go a drastic change and become a much more responsible organization or remain constrained on fringes of the Ethiopian empire. It must stop alianating the educated class and non-Ogaden tribes. Without such reform, don't expect much from them.