Hinda Aden and her fellow rebel fighters were trekking through the grasslands of Ethiopia’s Ogaden region under the cover of night, to avoid the enemy’s gaze, when they saw headlights approaching in the distance.
“We knew who it was – that’s when we started running,” Hinda says about that fateful August 2006 night – the first time she found herself on the front lines of a decades-long war that had raged in Ethiopia’s far east
The ONLF, which formed in 1984, was a social and political movement that transitioned into an armed group in the 1990s, as it battled against the Ethiopian army with the goal of achieving self-determination for ethnic Somalis living in Ogaden.
Hinda joined the rebellion in 2002 at age 18. Four years later she was pushing through the grassland, gun in hand, while the Ethiopian army pursued the ONLF by land and air.
“I saw flashes coming from the [military] planes, that’s when I knew they were taking [surveillance] pictures of us and likely feeding it back to the ground forces trying to capture us,” Hinda says
The rebels tried hiding among the trees, but knew they’d soon be found. “All I could do was clutch my AK-47 tighter and keep moving.”
Her company, which numbered about 100 that night, including Hinda and four other female fighters, evaded their enemy. By sunrise, they had lost their pursuers – or so they thought
As they walked in the scorching sun through the rural countryside of Qorahay province – sparsely populated as many civilians had fled the ongoing conflict – they came face to face with soldiers.
“We encountered Ethiopian troops but this time there was no cover. So we had no choice but to fight them head-on right there in the open,” Hinda says. “They even had tanks but it didn’t deter me. I was ready to be martyred that day.
As the two sides clashed, gunfire and blasts gripped the air and shells struck the soil around them. Once the smoke cleared, several of Hinda’s comrades lay dead, including three fellow female rebels
That August 5, 2006 battle in Hashalile was Hinda’s first combat experience upon returning from neighbouring Eritrea, where she had spent four years undergoing military training as a member of the ONLF – and it’s one that still stays with her even years after a peace deal was signed between the two sides in 2018, formally ending hostilities.
Intense rebel war
The origins of the Ogaden conflict are rooted in European colonialism but have affected generations of ethnic Somalis – many of whom, like Hinda, made the decision to take up arms.
In 1948, the British Empire began its colonial partition of the Somali territories in East Africa; Ogaden was ceded to Ethiopia in July that year. The partition of the territory coincided with the partitions of Kashmir and Palestine that also transpired in 1948. By 1954, more Somali territories had been ceded to Ethiopia by colonial Britain as part of the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty
Since, many Somalis in the Ogaden region have viewed their struggle against the Ethiopian state as an anti-colonial one – with the rebels initially receiving assistance and support from neighbouring Somalia in their struggle for self-determination
However, following the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, the rebellion in Ogaden transitioned from a Mogadishu-led war effort to a more grassroots rebellion led by Ogaden-Somalis themselves and spearheaded by the ONLF.
In 1992, when the ONLF was more a political entity, it won regional elections by a landslide, soon calling for a referendum on independence for the Ogaden region. But Ethiopia’s then-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi dismissed the calls and launched a large-scale military offensive. Forced from power by Ethiopia’s government in 1994, the ONLF took up arms
The intense rebel war waged by the ONLF spanned a near quarter century, with the Ethiopian government responding in what rights groups called a brutal campaign that saw villages set ablaze, towns emptied and the arid grasslands soaked in blood as conflict between the opposing sides engulfed the region
Meanwhile, for former rebels who grew up in the midst of all-out war, like Hinda, the scars have been slow to heal.
‘At the mercy of armed men in uniform’
Hinda, now 40, was born in the city of Degehabur, some 800km (500 miles) from Addis Ababa.
Hinda’s mother – Ambaro Ahmed Muse – was among the first female rebel fighters to take up arms with the ONLF when they were forced from power in 1994. Ambaro rose to the ranks of a senior rebel fighter and as a result became a wanted fugitive of the Ethiopian state.
“The Ethiopian soldiers and local Somali police would routinely raid our home when ONLF rebels were spotted in the area, thinking that maybe my mother would appear to visit us. So our home was always a target for surveillance and raids
Hinda was imprisoned under the mere suspicion of communicating with her mother, who had eluded the Ethiopian government. After three months of arbitrary detention, she was released but would soon relive a similar horror.
Upon being arrested a second time during a raid on their home, Hinda was forced to sign a document that stated she would be sentenced to death if she was ever arrested again
Finally, in October 2018, the war in Ogaden came to an end after a peace agreement in Asmara, hosted by the Eritrean government, was signed between the ONLF and the Ethiopian government.
While the agreement ceased hostilities between the warring parties, consecutive Ethiopian governments have viewed the Somalis in Ogaden as a thorn in their side due to their aspirations for self-determination, which if they were to come to fruition would alter Ethiopia’s borders
Renditioned’
But even in times of war, there are moments of joy, Hinda says.
Over the years she developed a close relationship with a fellow ONLF rebel fighter and the two married in 2007.
Five years later as the rebel war raged, the health of Hinda’s husband began to deteriorate. There was no access to medical centres in the rural countryside and if they ventured into the towns or cities for treatment, they risked getting arrested by the Ethiopian government
That’s when Hinda and her husband made the decision to travel to Hargeisa in northwest Somalia. As the couple got settled there, things began to change for the worse, Hinda reveals.
“During one night, my husband received a call … After the call came to an end, my husband informed me that a relative we both knew called
“I immediately told him to stop talking to that man because he was suspected of being a spy working with the Ethiopian government.”
Afterwards Hinda’s husband went to sleep. The next morning he woke up complaining of head pain. In mid-afternoon, he decided to go for a walk to clear his head but he never returned, Hinda tells Al Jazeera.
Once it hit nightfall, she began to worry. The following morning, with no sight of him, she made the decision to search for him, starting at the nearby market.
“Everyone I spoke to at the market gave me the cold shoulder. Each person I asked would either walk away or give me a bad look as if my questions weren’t welcome.”
Demoralised, she eventually made her way home
For the next 30 days, Hinda searched all over Hargeisa for her husband through intermediaries and not directly, due to the fear of being discovered as an ONLF member
Members of the ONLF, their supporters and even civilians from the Ogaden region with no ties to the ONLF have been arrested in the past and renditioned to Ethiopia by the different semi-autonomous states in Somalia, including Somaliland – according to rights groups such as the African Rights Monitor