Historical expansion of Issas into Afar 







Under here, the historic expansion of issas into the afar territory have been explain simply:

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The 1935 Italian invasion and subsequent occupation of the country (1935-1941) adversely influenced Afar-Issa relations. The Italians not only recruited Somali native soldiers and supported the Issa by providing arms and training, but also severely punished the Afar because of their alliance with the Ethiopians More importantly, the Issa who sided with the Italians began to have access to the Allighedi plains 31 with Italian support (Ibid). 


In the immediate post-war period, the Issa successfully expanded into traditional Afar territories. In 1947 as a result of a violent conflict between the two groups, the Afar were evicted from #Erer, #Aydora, #Asbuli and #Buti'yi localities in the former Adal, Issa and Gurgura awraja. During this period, the Afar also had to vacate the eastern side of the railway. Following this, the Haile Selassie government in 1948 decreed that the #Erer River should serve as a geographic divide between the Afar and the Issa. To maintain this boundary, the government deployed hundreds of troops until 1963.

The troop pullout in 1963 precipitated the outbreak of violence anew, leading to further Issa expansion into Afar territories (Seyoum et al. 1999: 15-16). 


The 1970s saw such radical changes in Ethiopia as the overthrow of the Haile Selassie government and the emergence of a Marxist military regime, the Derg. Unprecedented levels of intra and interstate conflict in the Horn of Africa characterised the post-1974 era, with Ethiopia at the epicentre.

The conflict situation of the Horn of Africa led to the entanglement of the Afar-Issa conflict with broader international and regional conflicts. In this regard, the 1977-8 Ethio￾Somalia war was of particular importance. 


According to John Markakis, one of the divisions of the Somalia backed WSLF was mainly composed of the Issa and was initially prepared to annex Djibouti. After Mogadishu dropped that plan, this division served in the Ethio-Somalia war in the Awash valley (1987: 446-7). 

After the war, the Issa managed to penetrate deep into the Awash valley and establish new Issa settlements on the highway that links Addis Ababa to the Assab/Djibouti ports. 

The most notable settlement in this regard was Gedamaitu, established in 1982. 


The Issa who were then located to the east of the highway were told not to come nearer than 40 kilometres to the highway. However, they were allowed to graze their livestock on the first 10 kilometres of the restricted zone. 


The military regime also dismantled the 

Gedamaitu town that emerged as an important transit point for contraband trade. 

After EPRDF’s takeover in 1991, the government ceased to enforce the above measures. Consequently, the 40 km restricted zone disintegrated, the Issa reconstituted the Gadamaytu town and further encroached into Afar territories. (Getachew 2001b: 30). 


As indicated in several studies, 

After TPLF regime take over in 1991, Issa expanded in several territories of Afar with high contribution of TPLF government. We Afar claim, there is TPLF and Djibouti government military backing the Issa invasion of Afar traditional territory and has established controband hubs on Addiss Ababab-Djibouti tarmac road. 


At the present, the Afar people doen't need to negotiate with the issas clan unless they leave land they took by force. It's known among the ethiopian people that issas and united Somalian people pushed Afar people from thier traditional border by force.

First, If the federal government wants to resolve the conflict, It should know that the Afar-issa border is the #Erer River. The Afar states that are taken by the tribes of Issas must return for afars. Issas should be returned to the predominant Shinille city. 


Source.... Study on Inter regional conflict by AK Adegah, 2009.