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That is false, Somali Army was defeated by Cuba and Russia in 1978.Mengistu was defeated in 1991,the same year Siad Barre was defeated too.Agreed! Ogaden war changed everything. Mingeste, Siyad, WSLF, millions of Somali souls and the strong Somali republic disappeared around same time. It was short lived military victory for Somalis, long lived politically for Ethio-Nations. Political war is just as important as military war and it's main reason of why the grass root ONLF political wing redefined the Ogaden cause.
.That is the political( or diplomatic) phase, you need to study the root of Ogaden war. For your information, still the fight is going on and I hope you will send some more Naasdheers
http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcoun ... ern_Africa#The group also suffered from political differences with its main supporter - the regime in Mogadishu - which weakened it substantially. This was tied to the internal differences that racked the group, with its long-time leaders being challenged by young radicals who wanted to distance the movement from Somalia, aiming for what they called "true self-determination". A conference was convened and the veteran Central Committee led by Abdullahi Hassan Mahmoud and his deputy, Abdi Nasir was overwhelmingly defeated. A new executive was elected with a "progressive", Mohammed Diriyeh Urdoch, as secretary-general. However, by and large WSLF increasingly came to resemble a spent force, and after 1983 the group was no longer a military threat to the Addis Ababa regime
http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcoun ... ern_Africa#While it is clear that the group was formed in August 1984 - some say in Mogadishu and others claim in the Gulf - it was not until in March 1986 that a public announcement of its existence was made. In this initial statement, ONLF chairman Sheikh Ibrahim Abdulah defined the Ogaden as "an op-pressed nation colonised by Ethiopia", and pledged to establish' an independent Ogaden state with full sovereignty in line with the aspirations of its people.
During the first years after its formation, ONLF did not have any significant military capacity. In fact, while some sources talk vaguely of the group gaining a foothold in the Ogaden region in the late 1980s, there are no reports of it actually challenging the Addis Ababa regime militarily
You can see that ONLF,WSLF were not a serious threat under Mengistu regime.The year 1996 saw further AIAI attacks and a statement by the movement's spokesman in Mogadishu, Abdulkadir Mohamud Dhaqane, saying that the group would continue attacking senior Ethiopian officials and pursue its guerrilla attacks in the Ogaden until the region became independent. Apart from stepping up military operations in Ogaden, the Ethiopian government in August responded by launching a military assault on the Somali AIAI branch's main base area in Gedo region. In heavy fighting the group's main base at Luuq was destroyed. Further fighting was announced in Dolow, Somalia, in September, and again in December. After yet another bout of fighting in 1999, AIAI was a spent force militarily