Conflicts in the Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa.

Conflicts in the Horn of Africa have been occurring since the 17th century BCE. The Horn of Africa includes the nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Ancient

• Invasion of Ancient Egypt by the Kingdom of Kush and the Land of Punt (17th century BC).

Medieval and Early Modern

• Ifat's conquest of Shewa (c. 1285)
• Abyssinian-Adal War (1529–1559), between the Ethiopian Empire and the Adal Sultanate
• Ajuran – Portuguese wars (throughout the 16th and 17th century)
• Gobroon–Bardera War (late 18th century)
• First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895–1896), between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire

Early 20th century

• Dervish resistance against the United Kingdom (1899–1920), the Kingdom of Italy, the Ethiopian Empire, and other Somalis
• World War I
  • East African Campaign (1914–1918), between the German Empire and the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Portuguese Empire, and the Kingdom of Belgium
• Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936) between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire
• World War II
  • East African Campaign (1940–1941), between the Kingdom of Italy and the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Kingdom of Belgium, and the Ethiopian Empire

Cold War

• Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991), between Eritrean liberation fronts (primarily the EPLF and early on also the ELF) and the Ethiopian Empire (1961–1974) and Marxist Derg-ruled Ethiopia (1974–1991)
• Shifta War (1963–1967), separatist insurgency by ethnic Somalis in Kenya
• Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991), between the Derg (ruling government of Ethiopia) and various rebel groups, as well as amongst the rebel groups, including the Marxist Ethiopian EPRP, MEISON, and TPLF, the Eritrean EPLF, ELF, the monarchist EDU (in the first stage of the war), and the Somali WSLF; included Red Terror
• Oromo conflict (1973–2018)
• Ogaden War (1977–1978), between Ethiopia and Somalia
• Ethiopian-Somali Border War (1982)

Post-Cold War

• Somali Civil War (1991–present)
• Djiboutian Civil War (October 1991 – December 1994)
• Hanish Islands conflict, (1995), between Yemen and Eritrea over the island of Greater Hanish in the Red Sea
• Insurgency in Ogaden (1995–2018)
  • Ogaden conflict (2007), between Ethiopia and the ONLF
• Eritrean–Ethiopian War (6 May 1998 – 25 May 2000)
• Djiboutian–Eritrean border conflict (10–13 June 2008)
• Gedeo–Oromo clashes (from December 2016)
• Oromo–Somali clashes (from December 2016)

See also

• Political history of Eastern Africa (for ancient, medieval, and early modern conflicts)
• History of Djibouti
• History of Eritrea
• History of Ethiopia
• History of Somalia

References

• Horn of Africa Concerns from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives