SUMMARY
SALF (Somali Abo Liberation Front) was an armed group active in the Ethiopian Arssi, Bale and Sidamo territorial conflict. From the 1200s to 1974, Ethiopia was an independent empire that eventually became known as “Abyssinia”; it was one of the few African states that avoided colonization by an European power. Abyssinia was ruled by a succession of Emperors, of which Haile Selassie I was the last one. In September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by a Marxist-Leninist military junta that later became known as the Provisional Military Council (PMAC); the junta was however most known as the “Derg”, which was a shortened version of its name. The new Derg-led Government of Ethiopia then initiated the implementation of a socialist system, and the purging of opposing elements. Not long after the coup, the Derg began facing an ever increasing number of domestic challengers, both for government power and separatist agendas. At the time, Ethiopia was also involved in a territorial dispute with Somalia over the Ogaden region, which 1964 had escalated into open armed conflict between the two states. It was in this context that SAFL emerged. The group’s primary goal was the secession of the Arssi, Bale, and Sidamo provinces from Ethiopia, either for the purpose of independence or eventual incorporation into Somalia.
SALF’s creation on 15 January 1976 was part of an ongoing, three-front regional power struggle between Somalia, the Ethiopian government, and various Ethiopian armed groups. At the time, the Government of Somalia sought to annex Ethiopia’s Ogaden region and parts of the Oromia region to establish a “Greater Somalia”; in order to achieve this, the Government of Somalia had in 1974 or 1975 facilitated the creation of WSLF, a Somali separatist movement in Ogaden. However, Somalia’s claim on parts of the Oromia region also meant that it had to compete with the OLF - an Oromo separatist group waging its own separatist conflict against the Government of Ethiopia – for public support. As such, the Government of Somalia was also a driving force behind the creation of SALF in order to attract support from the people living in the Arssi, Bale, and Sidamo provinces, located between Oromo- and Somali-inhabited areas. The people living in these areas were Oromo by one set of criteria (such as language) and Somali by another set of criteria (clanship and religion for instance). SALF – and Somalia – referred to the people of Arssi, Bale, and Sidamo as an ethnic group separate from the Oromo, called the “Somali Abo”; the name Somali Abo roughly meant “Oromo-speaking Somalis”. However, unlike the other Somalian irredentist group WSLF – which wanted all Ethiopian territory east of the Awash River to join Somalia - SALF claimed that while it was fighting for Somali Abo independence from Ethiopia, it was the people itself that would decide if it should merge with Somalia.
Ibrahim Wako Gutu Usu (commonly simply referred to as Wako Gutu) was the leader of SALF; he was a veteran of Oromo uprisings that had erupted in the 1960s. Most of SALF’s leadership was however made up of Somalis handpicked by the Government of Somalia to control the group. At the peak of its power in 1977-78, it was estimated that SALF had around 6000 fighters; most of them were Oromo from Bale and Sidamo. It should be noted that unlike WSLF – which was able to procure support from Ethiopia’s Somali population – SALF enjoyed very little popular support from the general Oromo population in its areas of operations. This meant that the group had to rely on more repressive methods – such as press-ganging and destruction of property – in order to recruit new members and accrue resources. SALF was also known for attacking and killing civilians, particularly Christian Amhara settlers.
As indicated above, there were very close ties between SALF and Somalia. Having been closely involved in the founding of the group in 1976, Somalia also took part in its organization, training, and arming. The Government of Somalia subsequently also went on to closely control the actions of the group. Furthermore, after Somalia invaded Ethiopia in mid-1977, SALF fought together with the Somalian troops, functioning as their auxiliaries. This continued during the first months of 1978, before Somalia withdrew its forces from Ethiopia. It was also very possible that SALF cooperated militarily with fellow Ethiopian rebel group WSLF, as both movements enjoyed close relationships with Somalia; some sources even suggested that SALF was the “Oromo wing” of WSLF. However, there was no conclusive information on the status of the relationship between the two groups, and the groups even clashed with each other occasionally due to overlapping geographical claims.
By 1980, SALF had ceased to function effectively as armed group following defeats to the Government of Ethiopia, and defections of large parts of its leadership and cadres to other armed groups, such as OLF and Oromo Islamic Front (OIF). The group was also weakened by a gradual withdrawal of Somalian support, and the waning of what little popular support it had procured.
