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April 25,
2007 Reports reaching our service desk
from our reporter in the Dhagax Bur
province, provide a first hand account on
the events leading up to the devastating
ONLF military strikes against the Ethiopian
military guardingoil exploration
installations in and around Cobole.
Our reporter was already in the area before
this military strike for a fact-finding
mission regarding recent mass evictions of
locals from one of the best grazing lands in
the Dhagax Bur region.
Locals have forcefully been cleared from the
area couple of months ago to give way to a
Chinese oil and gas prospecting operation.
Not only were herders and nomads cleared of
their own grazing land, but also whatever
grazing land and water resources remained
was cordoned off by the Ethiopian military.
This, the refusal for local access to the
remaining land, has created not only
resentment but also an outright anger as the
locals’ livelihoods were put on the line.
The elders from the communities in and
around Cobole have made their grievances
known to the Ethiopian military heads
however the military has not been
forthcoming even with a simple response or
explanation as one elder put it.
Local anger and resentment appears to have
helped ONLF reconnaissance units to carryout
detailed study of the movements and precise
locations of the three Ethiopian military
battalions stationed in and around the gas
and oil-prospecting project.
Locals interviewed by our reporter said that
not only were ONLF reconnaissance units
successful in carrying out their
reconnaissance operations but some of them
have even succeeded in entering and exiting
these military garrisons undetected several
times.
Access to the three military sites they
said, have given ONLF fighters an inside
knowledge of the precise locations,
movements, and even codes used by the
Ethiopian military for communications in
case of an emergency.
Locals agreed that it is this inside
knowledge gathered ahead of time that helped
ONLF fighters to successfully carry out one
of the most daring and successful military
strikes against the Ethiopian military for
some time.
For the Cobole operations, eyewitnesses put
the number of ONLF fighters that took part
in this operation between two and three
hundred. Eyewitnesses confirmed that ONLF
fighters gathered closer to all three
military posts around midnight on Monday
April 23rd, 2007.
Myriad of local sources agreed that the
actual military strike did not start until
around 3:00 AM Tuesday morning. It is
reported that ONLF having studied the
locations of all three military battalions
struck the rear battalion first while
positioning about hundred fighters in
between the first and the second.
While attacking the rear battalion it is
said ONLF communication specialists with
access to the emergency codes used by these
three battalions steered the first battalion
away from helping their comrades in arms. It
is said these specialists speaking fluent
Amharic asked the first battalion to go
south for mobbing out operations while they
said the third
battalion had the situation under control.
By the time the first battalion realized
that they were guided away from the fight,
the third and second battalions have already
been defeated. Many of the dead Ethiopian
military personnel were killed not by ONLF
but by indiscriminate shootings carried by
confused comrades shooting in all
directions.
The first battalion tried its best to fight
ONLF fighters however they were outnumbered
and outgunned. Because it was a mining
operation, many of the dead Chinese staff
are said to have been killed by explosions
from the mine and the indiscriminate
shooting by the confused Ethiopian military
who were shooting at all directions.
Having conquered the site, ONLF fighters
started mopping out operations. It is at one
of these mopping out operations that they
come across six dazed and confused Chinese
staffers.
Knowing full well the brutal tactics of the
Ethiopian military, ONLF fighters have
decided to take away these Chinese for their
own safety before they vacated the mining
and military site.
It is said that locals knowing full well
that the Ethiopian military reinforcements
will go on a murderous rampage have started
moving away from Cobole and its environs. A
sage elder succinctly said that although he
does not condone violence but he is happy to
see the tail of the Ethiopians who took away
his livelihood i.e. his grazing land.
With the devastating military defeat and the
Ethiopian talk of ‘cold-blood’ killings, we
put the question to a Horn of Africa
military specialist. This military
specialist said the operation at Cobole
highlights the shortcomings of the Ethiopian
military. Poorly trained military personnel
with none existent military protocol is the
root cause of this loss he
added.
He also said because it is a devastating and
a successful strike, the Ethiopian
leadership is attempting to change the topic
from the Ethiopian military shortcomings to
something more palatable to the Ethiopian
general public such as soldiers being killed
while asleep.
He sarcastically asked why would over
hundred military personnel all be sleeping
when they are tasked to guard a very
important installation such as an
oil-prospecting project in non-secure zone
--Ogaden Online News
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