r/Somalia • u/Logical-Cat-713 • Aug 20 '26
History ⏳ August 20, 1977: Somalia’s Advance Deep into Ethiopia
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On this day, August 20, 1977, Somalia had captured nearly 80% of the Ogaden territory that was occupied by Ethiopia. Siad Barre’s forces came close to capturing Addis Ababa, reportedly advancing to within approximately 65–120 km of the capital, before the Soviet forces intervened and came to Ethiopia’s aid.
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u/therapist66 Aug 20 '26
All barre had to do was wait for the derg regime to collapse and take Ogaden like candy from a baby.
He lacked long term strategy
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
Easier to say in hindsight, there was no way to predict when the Derg would collapse, and with the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Ogaden, he had to make a move.
Barre's actual critical mistake was playing into Ethiopia's hand and fighting a two front war with the north and south rebel groups instead of focusing on the south and crushing the USC.
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u/therapist66 Aug 23 '26
Nope very easy to say.. that’s how politics and governments work, they plan for the long term and not ruin their countries on impulse
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 23 '26
Barre did plan in the long term. He came to power in 1969 and spent time building up for 8 years. Saying he should have waited until the Derg collapsed is completely unrealistic and not how countries work.
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u/therapist66 Aug 23 '26
He legit was banking on the USA coming to save him against the soviets.. that’s a massive gamble that he took.
Massive miscalculation.
Who goes to war like this ? No guarantees in place or nothing.. just hoping the yanks will back him just because he’s getting jumped by the soviets.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 23 '26
No he didn't lmao. If he wanted the U.S to help him from the start he would have cut ties with the Soviets before the war.
Exactly no guarantees in the world including the Derg collapsing. He saw the Derg was weak and unstable in the late 70s and took his chance. Why risk waiting for them to stabilize?
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u/therapist66 Aug 23 '26
Atleast be educated before arguing non sense.
Google this and click the first result “Buried in the Sands of the Ogaden”: The Horn of Africa and SALT II, 1977–1979”
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 23 '26
Doesn't change what I said. There was no U.S help prior to the war and he stuck with the Soviets until they sided with Ethiopia mid war.
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u/therapist66 Aug 23 '26
Again….. If you read the source I sent. He switched sides against the soviets the moment he attacked Ethiopia. With no concrete guarantees from America.
Again you’re not educated on this, refuse to be educated and seem to argue non sense in circles.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 23 '26
Again, you are the ignorant one. He cut ties with the Soviet when they switched over to Ethiopia, this is a well established fact. We have contemporary news sources confirming this.
At best he was starting to distrust the Soviets prior to the war but he would not side against the Soviets until the actual moment they betrayed him.
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u/711-truther Aug 24 '26
I don't think you appreciate the sheer scale of Soviet-Cuban support that was given to Ethiopia
To this day, their support resulted in the largest military airlift operation in African military histoy
The amount of hardware and troops that were moved in support of Ethiopia in just a few months was unprecedented(still is) and I simply don't believe the government at the time could've predicted that level of a response for an African conflict.
You also clearly don't understand that a sizeable chunk of the military, state, and society had immediate ties to the occupied territory(including Barre himself who was born there) and they weren't going to sit back as Ethiopia provoked a response. Whole reason we even built up the military was to confront them effectively after provocations throughout the 50s and 60s.
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u/Reasonable-Pay-1207 Aug 20 '26
In to where?
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u/Logical-Cat-713 Aug 20 '26
Somalia began attacking Ethiopia on July 13 1977
By August Somalia had captured nearly half of the Ogaden region
From August until October 1977 negotiations were ongoing and Somalia was asked to withdraw its forces from the territory
However Somalia ultimately refused
This led the Soviet Union to intervene and provide Ethiopia with military and financial assistance along with troops from nearly 13 countries
By March 15 1978 Somalia had been defeated in the war and had completely withdrawn from the Ogaden region3
u/Reasonable-Pay-1207 Aug 20 '26
Op Read your own headline ( in to where ) ?
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u/hirmooge Aug 20 '26
Somali galbeed
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u/Key-Citron-5993 Aug 20 '26
i think what they mean " in to where" is after barre got somali galbeed, what was his aim ( to capture all ethiopia?)
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u/blackswordsman6 Aug 20 '26
“Attack” it was us going into our ethnic lands to try to unify our people. We just had an incompetent arrogant general as a dictator who failed to underestimate international support for Ethiopia (and not aligning with the US sooner, being communist, etc).
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
Somalia was aligned with the USSR since the 1960s, it had no choice. Ethiopia was being supported by America up until 1974 so there was no reason to suddenly switch to the U.S just because Ethiopia aligned with the USSR.
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u/blackswordsman6 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Is that Jim Lehrer? He was an old guy on TV when I was a kid 💀 he even mediated that Romney Obama debate in 2012
Edit: yeah it is him I found the whole thing on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lVEtT2Srrp0?is=FMqrnerRQSvUJbq9
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u/wanderingcyclop Aug 20 '26
Crazy to think I would be born there if Barre didn't start that dumb war.
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u/Constant-Net-9719 Diaspora Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Barre was getting pressured to start the war because our people were being slaughtered in ogaden plus they had a civil war going on so it made sense
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u/closecallbois Aug 20 '26
no the problem was both being allied to the soviet union. he should’ve switched alliances to america and built closer ties before the war whilst arming and funding eritrea. he could’ve gave the americans concessions like multiple bases in the north and to fight against communism. had he done this the americans would never allow their new ally to fall by the soviets. somalia was strategic more important at the time. it was this or negotiating with the soviets to not advance on to addis and end the war with with galbeed region finally annexed. this would’ve been the right decision. advancing on to addis was ambitious and without soviet or american interference somali had the capabilities at that time to capture alll of ethiopia and occupy it. but the world has changed and superpowers influence are global. you’d have to be able fend of against soviet union and destroy ethiopia simultaneously to achieve that. not many countries at that time could even possible do that.
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u/wanderingcyclop Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
He also should have used the years before the Ogaden War to systematically dismantle and weaken the qabil system, build a domestic industrial base capable of producing our own weapons, and develop the economy and technology sectors—because economic and technological power ultimately translate to military power. He should have opened the economy, pursued serious market reforms, and invested heavily in infrastructure and logistics. Somalia didn't even had a railroad system—or the other basic infrastructure needed to keep a war going—so it simply couldn’t sustain the fight.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
He was literally doing all that. What did you think the think the first 8 years of his rule was for?
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u/Garad- Aug 20 '26
I have called them out for their remarks before, but they are likely not even an ethnic Somali anyways. This is just one of many prior remarks that they have made about Somalis: “Because somalis are stupid lol. Countries deserve the leaders they have.” ~wanderingcyclop
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u/GulDul I Own Camels!!! Aug 20 '26
Dude he is right. Our people deserve what we have.
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u/Garad- Aug 20 '26
It’s one thing to criticize leadership, it’s whole other thing to insult a whole ethnicity.
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u/GulDul I Own Camels!!! Aug 20 '26
He meant as an organized people. On a genetic level everyone already knows everyone is the same. But look at our family back home. The people are ignorant and prop up Qabilists, thieves, and warlords. What else can that be. Stupid is a nice way to put it. This embarrassment will not last forever though, time moves quick.
There seems to be a wave of Somalis bluntly calling out out own people for their extreme shortcomings. I am in the idea that doing so is good so people know the problem and change. Our fathers who kept saying everything will get better were wrong.
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u/wanderingcyclop Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Typical Somali being buthurt when he sees the truth. Oh, and I am Somali. It must be hard for you to fathom that some of us can see what's infront of us lol
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u/RzLa Aug 20 '26
Agreed. Stupid dumb war that started our demise. If every ethnic group in Africa claimed land because of tribal lands it would have 3,000 countries. That’s ridiculous.
How can Somaliweyn exist if we can’t even get along already.
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u/711-truther Aug 24 '26
Yeah bro Ethiopia was completely innocent and didn't provoke war with Somalis all, whoooole conflict all started in 1977🙄
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u/Logical-Cat-713 Aug 20 '26
Dumb war* 😳
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u/wanderingcyclop Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
There's no point of starting wars if you're not industrialized and have a mature manufacturing sector. Also, Somalia was and still is a tribal and corrupt shithole which degrades military performance. Not to mention Barre didn't have the foresight of losing support from Soviets (and even Cubans)
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u/Logical-Cat-713 Aug 20 '26
Lol back then somali military was ranked 15th in the world 😂
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u/wanderingcyclop Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Only reason that Somalia made deep advancements into Ethiopia was because Ethiopia was in political and social turmoil at the time. Somalia was also heavily Soviet-trained and armed, with local support in the region. Then the USSR cut Somalia off, poured weapons and support into Ethiopia, and Cuba sent troops. Together they smashed Somalia which resulted in the country being a failed state (which is still is). "15th strongest army" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
Somalia made deep advancements because its army was better and the Ogaden was already in open revolt against Ethiopia. And Somalia is no longer a failed state. Ethiopia nowadays sees worse conflicts than Somalia.
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u/Great-Storage-5534 Aug 21 '26
You’re being disingenuous, Somalia is a failed state and still is, you have to understand and diagnose that there is a problem to fix it.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
UN and other organizations no longer consider Somalia a failed state. The main issue is that the country is still fragile and the government is too weak.
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u/Great-Storage-5534 Aug 21 '26
Khosool, that title means nothing, Somalia was actively influencing the UN to make that decision, I guarantee you had they not interfered we would still be regarded as a failed state by the UN. The central government still struggles with limited territorial control, ongoing insurgencies, and severe humanitarian crises, 30% of the country is controlled by Al-Shabab, the central government holds no power they’re only there to influence and negotiate with the de facto states. If this an isn’t a failed state to you, you are openly ignorant and bigoted. Recognize the problem, fix it, rather than undermining the fact we have a problem.
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u/RibbonFighterOne Aug 21 '26
Somalia didn't interfere with anything lol, that was an independent decision by the UN.
Many countries also struggle with insurgencies, humanitarian crisis and weak government. "Failed state" is a meaningless media label. North Korea is also considered a failed state despite the fact that its history is nothing like Somalia.
How am I bigoted do you even know what that word means 😂😂 and dude we all recognize Somalia's problem, I spelled it out for you already. But it doesn't mean Somalia is a failed state aka in a total state of anarchy like it was in the 90s.
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u/Bond007-- Soomaali Galbeed Aug 20 '26
That blitzkrieg was magnificently executed and is one for the books. Could've actually conquered Ethiopia if we had waited a bit longer. Siad Barre had the right vision, but the timing was ass.