Halgan on Somalia's decision to cut ties with the Soviet Union

Halgan magazine explains the rupture in Somali-Soviet relations during the 1977 with Ethiopia in an acerbic editorial

In the summer of 1977 Somalia declared war on Ethiopia to annex the Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia, which the Somali government called Western Somalia. The Ogaden region is majority Somali and was claimed by Mogadishu when the country became independent. Recapturing the region, which constituted about of third of Ethiopia’s territory, was part of Mogadishu’s ambitious plan to reunite Greater Somalia (Somaliweyn), which are Somali inhabited territories divided by colonial powers between Djibouti, Ethiopia and north-west Kenya.

Following a coup which overthrew Somalia’s troubled democratic government in 1969, Major General Mohammed Siad Barre took control of the country and began cultivating closer ties with Moscow. The two countries signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1974, in which the Soviet Union began a series of programs in Somalia from education to humanitarian work, but also crucially, military aid. Within a few years Barre had one of the most powerful and best equipped armies in sub-Saharan Africa and decided to embark on a military campaign in Ethiopia.

Though Mogadishu’s motivations for the war were well-known, the timing and the triggers for the conflict remain shrouded in mystery. Did the USSR encourage Somalia to invade Ethiopia which for much of the Cold War was aligned with the west? Or did the Somali government invade by its own initiative, taking advantage of a period of instability in Ethiopia which saw its neighbour begin its own experiment with socialism?

Either way the invasion exposed tensions between the erstwhile partners as the USSR sought closer relations with Ethiopia in light of the ideological leanings of its new leader Mengistu Haile Mariam. Moscow sent in its own advisers to support the Ethiopian army as well as thousands of Cuban troops to repel the Somali army. Barre was furious and felt betrayed.

Halgan (Struggle in Somali), an organ of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist party poured scorn on the Soviets in an editorial which reveals the thinking of the Somali political class and how the raison d’etre for the invasion was viewed more broadly by Somali publics. Here are some passages from November 1977 issue in the image above:

The Soviet-Somali friendship Treaty reflected common interests and principles. The relations between the USSR and Somalia were founded on mutual advantages and shared perspectives. As time went on, it became obvious that the USSR was pursuing policies contrary to the spirit and letter of the Treaty. A decline in the relations between the two former friends was naturally visible and a rupture in the friendship treaty became inevitable.

The editorial said Mogadishu’s appeals to Moscow and Havana fell on deaf ears, describing Ethiopia as an empire, implying that it wasn’t dissimilar to European empires which were pushed out of Africa during various independence struggles:

The SDR [Somali Democratic Republic] spared no efforts in appealing both to the USSR and Cuba to stop their menacing interference in the affairs within the Ethiopian Empire. The USSR and Cuba had, however, taken an implacable stand and they remained deaf to all appeals, to all forms ot reasoning and friendly advice.

The USSR Halgan alleged, wanted to use Ethiopia’s new regime to gain a further foothold in Africa, ignoring the fact that Addis Ababa, similar to other empires on the continent was repressing progressive forces domestically and the political aspirations ethnic groups in Ethiopia for self-determination:

They see its great potentiality as a «Client state». Accordingly, they turn a deaf ear to the protests of all those progressive forces being destroyed by the Addis-Ababa regime. Similarly they do not wish to consider the ‘problems of the colonized nations within Ethiopia; in fact they are willing and eager to provide Mengistu with all the necessary supports - political economic and military to wage genocidal wars against Eritrean and Western Somali peoples.

The editorial argued that the conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia wasn’t a border dispute but a broader consequence of people’s in Ethiopia seeking a break with what Halgan described as “Ethiopian colonialism”:

The controversy in the Horn of Africa is not a border dispute between the SDR and Ethiopia, it is the outcome of the liberation struggles of the Western Somali People, Eritrea. and other nationalities waging wars against a century - old Ethiopian colonialism.

The USSR and Cuba stayed the course in the end, continuing their support for Ethiopia until Somalia’s army was ejected from the country.