Word: ogaden
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Ethiopia is not simply acting as Washington's regional policeman, however. It has a long-running border dispute with Somalia that led to two years of open warfare in the late 1970s, and it sees the nationalist inclination of the Islamists - and their vow to take control of the Ogaden desert from Ethiopia - as an immediate threat to its own interests. (The Islamists actually back secessionist insurgents in that region.) Given Ethiopia's intervention on behalf of the government, it comes as no surprise that Addis Ababa's fiercest foe, neighboring Eritrea, is supporting and arming the Somali Islamists...
...Ethiopia fears that a powerful Islamic regime in Somalia (or any powerful regime in Somalia for that matter) will threaten its borders and may link up with anti-Addis Islamic groups in the Ethiopian area of Ogaden. With its superior troop numbers and military hardware (including a small number of planes), Ethiopia is likely to win any battle between the two forces. But war could leave Somalia even more broken than it already is. John Prendergast, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group and an Africa specialist in the Clinton administration, says a conflict would likely end the transitional...