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After the British evacuated the West Somalia in 1948, Ethiopian officers took over administration in the
city of Jijiga, at one point suppressing a demonstration led by the SYL, which the government
subsequently outlawed. At the same time, Ethiopia renounced its claim to Italian Somaliland in deference
to UN calls for self-determination. The Ethiopians, however, maintained that self-determination was not
incompatible with eventual union.
Immediately upon the birth of the Republic of Somalia in 1960, which followed the merger of British
Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, the new country proclaimed an irredentist policy. Somalia laid claim to
Somali-populated regions of French Somaliland (later called the French Territory of the Afars and Issas,
and Djibouti after independence in 1977), the northeastern corner of Kenya, and the West Somalia, a
vast, ill-defined region occupied by Somali nomads extending southeast from Ethiopia's southern
highlands that includes a separate region east of Harer known as the Haud. The uncertainty over the
precise location of the frontier between Ethiopia and the former Italian possessions in Somalia further
complicated these claims. Despite UN efforts to promote an agreement, none was made in the colonial or
the Italian trusteeship period.
In the northeast, an Anglo-Ethiopian treaty determined the frontier's official location. However, Somalia
contended that it was unfairly placed so as to exclude the herder’s resident in Somalia from vital seasonal
grazing lands in the Haud. The British had administered the Haud as an integral part of British Somaliland,
although Ethiopian sovereignty had been recognized there. After it was disbanded in the rest of Ethiopia,
the British military administration continued to supervise the area from Harer eastward and did not
withdraw from the Haud until 1955. Even then, the British stressed the region's importance to Somalia by
requiring the Ethiopians to guarantee the Somali free access to grazing lands.
Somalia refused to recognize any pre-1960 treaties defining the Somali-Ethiopian borders because
colonial governments had concluded the agreements. Despite the need for access to pasturage for local
herds, the Somali government even refused to acknowledge the British treaty guaranteeing Somali
grazing rights in the Haud because it would have indirectly recognized Ethiopian sovereignty over the
area.
Within six months after Somali independence, military incidents occurred between Ethiopian and Somali
forces along their mutual border. Confrontations escalated again in 1964, when the Ethiopian air force
raided Somali villages and encampments inside the Somali border. Hostilities were ended through
mediation by the OAU and Sudan. However, Somalia continued to promote irredentism by supporting the
Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), which was active in the West Somalia. Claims of oil discoveries
prompted the resurgence of fighting in 1973.
city of Jijiga, at one point suppressing a demonstration led by the SYL, which the government
subsequently outlawed. At the same time, Ethiopia renounced its claim to Italian Somaliland in deference
to UN calls for self-determination. The Ethiopians, however, maintained that self-determination was not
incompatible with eventual union.
Immediately upon the birth of the Republic of Somalia in 1960, which followed the merger of British
Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, the new country proclaimed an irredentist policy. Somalia laid claim to
Somali-populated regions of French Somaliland (later called the French Territory of the Afars and Issas,
and Djibouti after independence in 1977), the northeastern corner of Kenya, and the West Somalia, a
vast, ill-defined region occupied by Somali nomads extending southeast from Ethiopia's southern
highlands that includes a separate region east of Harer known as the Haud. The uncertainty over the
precise location of the frontier between Ethiopia and the former Italian possessions in Somalia further
complicated these claims. Despite UN efforts to promote an agreement, none was made in the colonial or
the Italian trusteeship period.
In the northeast, an Anglo-Ethiopian treaty determined the frontier's official location. However, Somalia
contended that it was unfairly placed so as to exclude the herder’s resident in Somalia from vital seasonal
grazing lands in the Haud. The British had administered the Haud as an integral part of British Somaliland,
although Ethiopian sovereignty had been recognized there. After it was disbanded in the rest of Ethiopia,
the British military administration continued to supervise the area from Harer eastward and did not
withdraw from the Haud until 1955. Even then, the British stressed the region's importance to Somalia by
requiring the Ethiopians to guarantee the Somali free access to grazing lands.
Somalia refused to recognize any pre-1960 treaties defining the Somali-Ethiopian borders because
colonial governments had concluded the agreements. Despite the need for access to pasturage for local
herds, the Somali government even refused to acknowledge the British treaty guaranteeing Somali
grazing rights in the Haud because it would have indirectly recognized Ethiopian sovereignty over the
area.
Within six months after Somali independence, military incidents occurred between Ethiopian and Somali
forces along their mutual border. Confrontations escalated again in 1964, when the Ethiopian air force
raided Somali villages and encampments inside the Somali border. Hostilities were ended through
mediation by the OAU and Sudan. However, Somalia continued to promote irredentism by supporting the
Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), which was active in the West Somalia. Claims of oil discoveries
prompted the resurgence of fighting in 1973.