Assess the extent to which superpower involvement affected Ethiopia during the Cold War.

The 1974 overthrow of the regime of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia by a clique of Marxist officers known as the Derg shook what had previously been a relatively stable regional order. As political unrest overcame Ethiopia and the Derg grew increasingly radical, ethnic insurgencies by Eritreans, Oromos, Tigrayans, Afars, and Ogadens flared on the borders of the former Ethiopian empire. Eritrea, which had been in rebellion since 1960, was home to the most serious insurgency. The burden of these rebellions placed a massive strain on Ethiopia.

Ogaden Somalis held deep ties with their kin on the Ethiopian side of the border and Somalia dreamt of a ‘Greater Somalia’ that incorporated ethnic Somalis living in Ethiopia. Barre’s Somali regime initially sought to achieve this goal through irregular warfare. The Ethiopian government in these regions existed in a state of siege and effectively ceded control over the countryside. After guerrilla assaults in the spring of 1977 failed to secure any major towns, Somalia deployed conventional forces to try to achieve its political goal. However, superpower rivalry put more weapons at Somalia’s disposal.

As the Cold War heated up, the USSR joined the United States in the struggle for power and influence in the Horn of Africa. In 1963, the USSR signed a military assistance pact with Somalia. In 1964, the First Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia broke out and the Ethiopian government, backed by the United States defeated the Somalis. Fearing the loss of Ethiopia to the Soviets, US arms shipments continued in reduced quantities after Selassie’s fall but the Marxist Derg, needing vast amounts of military equipment because of the Eritrean insurgency, also sought Soviet assistance.

In July 1977, defying Moscow, the Soviet-equipped Somali National Army invaded the Ogaden. By August 1977, the Soviets began to come down firmly in support of Ethiopia. They reduced aid to Barre who expelled all Soviet advisers from Somalia in November 1977. Barre believed that the United States would now supply him with arms. Soviet aid poured into Ethiopia and 17 000 Cuban combat troops arrived tipping the military balance in favour of the Ethiopians.

Ethiopia's leaders, already faced with insurgencies and growing opposition to radical policies, feared the country was falling apart. Soviet arms were being used by the Somalis to destroy Ethiopia when the Soviets had assured Ethiopia that it could safely reduce its forces in the east without fear of a Somali attack. The Western powers, appalled at Somalia, cancelled arms sales. In January 1978 the Ethiopian forces unleashed a massive counterattack. With his army expelled from the Ogaden, Barre again called for Western military aid. The shock of the Soviet intervention ultimately led Carter to adopt Somalia as a Cold War ally.

The Ogaden War had catastrophic consequences for East Africa. Ethiopia’s victory with Soviet support did not result in improvements for the people. In Ethiopia up to 500,000 were killed as a result of the Red Terror, from forced deportations or from the use of hunger as a weapon under Mengistu Haile Mariam’s rule. The Derg, with continued Soviet backing, pursued an ambitious programme that included collectivisation, intensive farming methods, and the nationalisation of forest areas. These reforms, combined with a drought decimated Ethiopian agricultural output and sparked a severe food shortage. By 1985, an estimated one million Ethiopians had died in the famine. Under Gorbachev aid to Ethiopia was reduced causing more economic hardship.