SUMMARY
The conflict between SALF (Somali Abo Liberation Front) and the Ethiopian government concerned the status of the Arssi, Bale and Sidamo provinces, with the rebels stating that their aim was to allow the population in these regions to themselves decide whether to join Somalia or form an independent state. SALF had strong ties to the regime in Mogadishu and the conflict was closely interlinked with the interstate conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia. After a brutal Ethiopian counter-insurgency campaign in 1980, SALF was so weakened that it failed to make any further military impact.
IN DEPTH
Background to the conflict
Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country and the border between the largest ethnic group, the Oromos, and the third or fourth largest – depending on the source – ethnic group, the Somali, runs through Arrsi, Bale and Sidamo regions. In 1977 the Oromo rebel group OLF (Oromo Liberation Front), established in 1974, was fighting for the independence of Oromiya, and the Somali rebel movement WSLF (Western Somali Liberation Front), pursued an armed struggle aiming for secession for the greater Ogaden region. The territorial claims of these two groups overlapped, which caused some friction. In the middle of the year Somalia, which had previously supported WSLF, took the struggle for a greater Somalia a step further and invaded the southwestern part of the country, with troops pushing into both Hararghe (where the Ogaden region is located) and Bale provinces. It was in this context that SALF was borne and launched its armed struggle. Somalia saw the need for a counterweight to OLF, since the Oromo group’s aspirations threatened those of WSLF and Somalia, and thus initiated the founding of the movement.
SALF was based among the ethnic groups living on the border between Oromo- and Somali areas, which traditionally had dual ethnic belongings; they were Oromo by one set of criteria (such as language) and Somali by another set of criteria (clanship and religion for instance). Here, Somalia saw the possibility of gaining ground and thus assisted in the setup of SALF. Apart from also taking part in its organisation, training and arming, Mogadishu subsequently also went on to closely control the actions of the group.
The first phase of the conflict
During 1976 the first SALF fighters infiltrated across the border from Somalia and there were a number of clashes where the rebels destroyed government offices and attacked the police during the year. Most of the government representatives in the area were forced to flee to the nearest garrison towns and many of those who failed to do so in time lost their lives.
While the newly established rebel group thus succeeded in stirring some trouble in its areas of operation, it was not until the Somali invasion in 1977 that it gained some more attention (for more information on the former, see the section on the Ethiopia – Somalia conflict). Being closely allied to the regime in Mogadishu (see “Background to the conflict”), SALF coordinated its armed operations with the Somali troops, and – according to authoritative sources – for some time came sections of the group came to function as ancillaries to the latter.
Reverting to guerrilla warfare
After some initial large-scale successes, the invading Somali army was eventually forced to withdraw from Ethiopia in March 1978. While this was a heavy setback for SALF, the group was not defeated. Instead, it but resorted to guerrilla warfare in Bale and Sidamo provinces and by the end of 1978 guerrilla attacks were gaining in frequency. Not claiming to control any villages or towns, SALF’s secretary-general Mohammed Ali Rubey nevertheless stated that: “We are the ones controlling the area. The Ethiopians stick to their camps. We terrorize them in small groups, and we control the roads”.
The group was able to maintain some pressure against the government through 1979, carrying out intermittent attacks in Arssi, Bale and Sidamo. However, the following year saw a number of set-backs for the rebels that eventually served to weaken them to such an extent that they no longer constituted a military threat to the regime. For one, Somali began to scale down its crucial support during the year, with the latter instead attempting to improve its relations with the more influential rebel group OLF (Oromo Liberation Front), one of SALF’s main competitors. Also serving to strengthen OLF at the expense of SALF was the large-scale defection by both a large number of rank-and-file fighters and the majority of the 33-man SALF central committee to the former. Finally, in August the Ethiopian army, supported by Cuban troops, launched “Operation Lash”, a military offensive targeting a range of anti-Derg actors in the east and south, among them SALF. The group never recovered from this operation.
Post-conflict developments
After the set-backs of 1980, (see “Reverting to guerrilla warfare”) SALF maintained a small operational presence in the region throughout the 1980s. However, the group never recovered enough to once again constitute a military threat to the Addis Ababa regime. This was due to a number of reasons. For one, its popular support had declined substantially after the Somali invasion of 1977-78. During the interstate conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia, during which SALF fought together with the latter, Mogadishu had shown evident ambitions to annex Arrsi, Bale and Sidamo provinces. This caused the population to question to aims and goals of the rebel group; SALF had initially stated that it was the population in the region that themselves would decide whether to join Somalia or to opt for independence, but with the apparent territorial ambitions of Somalia and SALF’s close cooperation with Mogadishu, this was cast into doubt. As the Somali troops had committed abuses against the civilian population in these areas, also this served to weaken the support for Somali-supported SALF.
Apart from the loss of popular support, SALF also continued to suffer from defections throughout the 1980s. After the first big loss of rank-and-file fighters to OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) in 1980 (see “Reverting to guerrilla warfare”), the Oromo rebel group continued to gain fighters from SALF over the following years. Furthermore, the emergence of yet another rebel group, OIF (Oromo Islamic Front), resulted in SALF fighters defecting and joining the new movement.
