Haud

Haud (or Hawd; Amharic: ሓውድ) is a region of thorn-bush and grasslands in the Horn of Africa. It includes the northeastern part of the Ogaden territory of Ethiopia, as well the adjacent parts of Somalia.

Overview

The Haud is of indeterminate extent; some authorities consider it denotes the part of Ethiopia east of the city of Harar. I.M. Lewis provides a much more detailed description, indicating that it reaches south from the foothills of the Golia and Ogo Mountains. "The northern and eastern tips lie within the Somali Republic, while the western and southern portions (the later merging with the Ogaden plateau) form part of the Harari Province of Ethiopia." For decades following the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1941 it (as well as the entire Ogaden) has been an area of conflict and controversy.

The British exerted control of the Ogaden beginning in 1941 as part of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement, administering the Haud as part of their adjacent colony of British Somaliland, although Ethiopian sovereignty was still recognized in the area. This region was defined in the 1942 agreement as including the Ethiopian territory within a