VANESSA VICK PHOTOGRAPHY

ONLF

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) began armed resistance against the government of Ethiopia in 1994 creating a separatist war pitting impoverished nomads against one of the biggest armies in Africa.

Human rights organizations and ethnic Somalis from the Ogaden region have described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with the Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will.
   
The recent exploration of oil in the region is making the Ogaden economically more important to the government, which has increased its efforts to defeat the rebels.
   
A woman fighter of the O.N.L.F. who is married to an O.N.L.F. commander. The rebel army has several women serving in its ranks.
     
  
The rebels have very little equipment or weapons but are determined to fight the Ethiopian Army for an independent Ogaden.
   
The vast area is essentially a no-go zone for most human rights workers and journalists and where the Ethiopian military, by its own admission, is waging an intense counterinsurgency campaign.
  
An ONLF fighter carries amunition.
     
  
Rebels often walk at during the night to escape being spotted by government troops and escape the punishing heat.
   
A young fighter waits for orders.
   
The Ethiopian government calls the Ogaden rebels terrorists and says they are armed and trained by Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor and bitter enemy.
     
  
Anab who was too frightened to give her last name, said soldiers took her to a police station, put her in a cell and twisted her nipples with pliers and then raped her.
   
In the Ogaden, it is not clear how many people are dying. The Ethiopian government began blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to large swaths of a remote region in the eastern part of the country that is home to a rebel force, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation by sealing them off in a dry, unforgiving landscape that is difficult to survive in even in the best of times.
   
The rebels rely heavily on the local population to support them with food and information about the Ethiopian army.
     
  
The rebels carry a solar panel to charge their satellite phones and radios for communication.
  
Morale is high among the rebels despite the meager resources they have to survive.
  
At a community meeting a village man tells rebels about recent atrocities committed by the Ethiopian Army.
     
  
The rebels carry their ammunition belt, a small tarp for rain and if it is available food.
   
Humanitarian officials say the military is building up militias and setting the stage for clan-based bloodshed. The rank and file of the Ogaden National Liberation Front tends to be members of the Ogaden clan, and so the government has turned to other clans to form anti-rebel militias.
  
An O.N.L.F. soldier shows the flag that would represent the Ogadeni as a separate country. The Ogaden lies on the border of Somalia and Ethiopia and the flag is a blend of the Somali and Ethiopian flags.