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Ethiopia Cuba
Cuba's involvement with Ethiopia paralleled that of the
Soviet Union. Prior to the outbreak of the Ogaden War,
Havana, like Moscow, had been an ally of Somalia. After a
series of Somali armed incursions into the Ogaden ruptured
already tense relations between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu,
Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz visited the Horn of Africa
and urged the two countries to join in forming a regional
federation that also would include South Yemen, an
"autonomous" Ogaden, an "autonomous" Eritrea, and Djibouti.
After the failure of this initiative, Cuba began moving
closer to Ethiopia, abandoning its ties with Somalia in the
process.
In November 1977, two months after Somali forces had
captured Jijiga, Cuban military advisers started to arrive
in Ethiopia. By the end of the month, the Soviet Union had
also begun a six-week airlift, later supplemented by a
sealift, of Cuban troops. From the end of November 1977 to
February 1978, Havana deployed approximately 17,000 troops
to Ethiopia, including three combat brigades. Some of these
troops had previously been stationed in Angola.
The Cuban presence was crucial to Ethiopia's victory over
Somalia. During the Derg's early 1978 counteroffensive in
the Ogaden, Cuban troops fought alongside their Ethiopian
counterparts. With Cuban support, Ethiopian units quickly
scored several impressive victories. As a result, on March
9, 1978, Somali president Mahammad Siad Barre announced that
his army was withdrawing from the Ogaden.
After the Ethiopian victory in the Ogaden, attention
shifted to Eritrea. By early 1978, the EPLF had succeeded in
gaining control of almost all of Eritrea except the city of
Asmera and the ports of Mitsiwa and Aseb. After redeploying
its forces from the Ogaden to northern Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
launched a counteroffensive against the EPLF during late
1978.
Although there is some disagreement, most military
observers believe that Cuba refused to participate in the
operation in Eritrea because Castro considered the Eritrean
conflict an internal war rather than a case of external
aggression. However, the continued presence of Cuban troops
in the Ogaden enabled the Mengistu regime to redeploy many
of its troops to northern Ethiopia.
A large Cuban contingent, believed to number about 12,000,
remained in Ethiopia after the Ogaden War. However, by mid1984 Havana had reduced its troop strength in Ethiopia to
approximately 3,000. In 1988 a Cuban brigade, equipped with
tanks and APCs, was stationed in Dire Dawa to guard the road
and railroad between Ethiopia and Djibouti, following
attacks by Somali-supported rebels. A mobile battalion of
various military advisers and an unknown number of Cuban
instructors who were on the Harer Military Academy faculty
also remained in Ethiopia.
After Ethiopia and Somalia signed an April 1988 joint
communiqué intended to reduce tensions, Cuba decided to end
its military presence in Ethiopia. The last Cuban troops
left on September 17, 1989, thus terminating twelve years of
military cooperation.
Data as of 1991
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