Today we'll look at the African Horn, a homeland of the Somali nation. Somalian society is clan-based, and the areal of these clans extends far over the Somalian state borders. Many ethnic Somalis inhabit border regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. As as result, historically, since achieving the independence, there always were irredentist calls for the creation of the Greater Somalia.
During the Cold War era period, there were two major attempts to unify Somalian lands: insurgency in Kenyan Northern Frontier District of 1963–1967 and Ogaden War of 1977-1978.



Insurgency in Kenya (1963 – 1967), also known under the propaganda name "Shifta War" ("shifta" is Somali word for "bandit"), was an insurgency where the ethnic Somalian rebels tried to break away from Kenya and join Somali Republic. Somalian government didn't support the insurgents directly, as the military capabilities of the young country was still quite insignificant, and there were only about 5000 soldiers in Somalian army. Also, Kenya warned Somalian authorities to avoid any indirect rebel support, threatening with a possibility of a full-scale war.

The counter-insurgency measures performed by the Kenyan government included forcing civilians into "protected villages" (viewed by some as concentration camps) as well as killing a large number of livestock kept by the ethnic Somalis to diminish the economic base of the rebellion.
Finally, the violent phase of war ended on October 23, 1967, when Prime Minister of the Somali Republic signed a ceasefire with Kenyan authorities at the Arusha Conference, although occasional skirmishes and minor agitation still occurred during the next decades.

In the game, when the conflict begins, you can support Kenya or Somalia (or both), and if the Somali Republic wins, Northern Frontier District of Kenya gets annexed by the Somali Republic.



Ogaden War (July 1977 – March 1978) was a war between Somalia and Ethiopia, where the Somalian dictator Mohamed Siad Barre declared war on Ethiopia, aiming to annex Somali-inhabited Ogaden region. Barre positioned himself as a pro-Soviet leader and was firmly sure that Moscow wouldn't object (or maybe even would give him full support) if he would start a war with Ethiopia - a country that was definitely pro

-Western until the beginning of 1977. However the Kremlin decided to support Ethiopia instead and even had broken the diplomatic relations with Somalia. It was actually the time when Ethiopian foreign policy started to re-align from the West to the East, so the new leftist regime of Ethiopian military junta was considered a valuable potential ally by the USSR.

It was a paradoxical situation when the Soviet military advisors supported troops that were equipped with the Western weapons, while their enemy used Soviet equipment and manuals. Cuban and South Yemenite expeditionary forces joined the war on the Ethiopian side as well, and the war ended with an utter defeat of Somalia and subsequent overthrow of Siad Barre. As a result, Somalia submerged into the long period of chaos and anarchy.

In the game, when the war starts, you can either help Somalian or Ethiopian governments to conquer or defend Ogaden. Still, as the game ends on 31.12.1989, you won's see the fall of Siad Barre and Somalian breakup if you'll help Ethiopia, although that can be subject to change in the future, if we'll add the 1990s timeline expansion (that is possible, but currently we can't give any solid promises due to very high sensitivity of the modern era conflicts).


What do we plan for Somali next? If you'll manage to create Greater Somalia, the next step will be alternative historical conflicts over Djibouti and Socotra that can occur semi-randomly. Both territories were sporadically claimed by Somalia, but there weren't any armed clashes over them, although stronger, Greater Somalia could feel itself confident enough to continue its further (and historically plausible) expansion.

Find out what it's like to be a arms dealer. Travel back into the 1960s and establish your shady international business right in the midst of the Cold War!
It will be available on Steam soon, so don't miss it!