The Role of Workers Militia in the Ethio-Somalia War,1977-78

The Somali irredentist aimed at establishing Greater Somalia by conquering all the Somali speaking areas in East Africa. In doing so, Somali invaded Ethiopia in 1964 and 1977/78 respectively. During the two invasions, the Ethiopian workers led by the Confederation of Ethiopian Labour Unions (CELU) and the All Ethiopian Trade Unions (AETU) defended the sovereignty of their country. More importantly, in the second Ethio-Somalia war, a number of Ethiopian workers were organized under two militia Brigades and three mixed Brigades and defended their country. This paper therefore attempts to reconstruct the role of the Ethiopian workers in defending the sovereignty of Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somalia war. Since this is a qualitative study, data for the study was collected through document analysis and in-depth interviews. The collected data were analyzed thematically. The findings show that the Ethiopian workers participated in the second Ethio-Somalia war not only as drivers and technicians of military convoys but also as militia combatants and defended their motherland from irredentists