The conflict was characterized by intense fighting around various border posts and villages, such as Dolow, and aerial bombardments by the vastly superior Ethiopian Air Force on major urban centers in Somalia such as Hargeisa and Galkayo.

At Hodayo, a watering place north of Werder, 300 men picked a former public official named Mukhtal Dahir, to lead an insurgency against the Ethiopians referred to as "Nasrallah" or the Ogaden Liberation Front.

It was impossible to seek it through democratic means in a country where there is no free speech and no political party machinery, where expeditions are sent to collect taxes by force — seizing camels and mil-let crops.

[13] The insurgencies surprising early success is attributed to the terrain advantage the Ogaden offered, ideal for traditional guerrilla hit-and-run tactics, placing the mechanized troops at a large disadvantage.

"[31] In August 1963 Ethiopian forces regrouped and the 3rd Division of the Imperial Army swept back through the Ogaden with relative ease, aided an eight-week-long air campaign against Somali targets on both sides of the border and the inexperience of the guerrillas.

[34] In a bid to control the largely nomadic population of the region during 1963, an Ethiopian Imperial Army division based out of Harar torched Somali villages and carried out mass killings of livestock.

Accounts dispute who launched the first serious incursion, but in mid to late January 1964, either Somali or Ethiopian army units crossed the opposing sides northern border in the Haud.

[58][59]Numerous independent written accounts assert that the 3rd Infantry Division of the Ethiopian Imperial army, under the command of General Aman Andom, launched the initial major assault that sparked the war as a punitive response to Somali governments support for the Ogaden insurgency.

Lytton noted that most diplomatic observers in Mogadishu believed the assault was initiated by Ethiopia with the aim at bringing pressure on the Somali government to halt the insurgency in the Ogaden region.

[26] According to professor Harold G. Marcus, "The American-equipped Third Division moved into Ogaden in full strength and in mid-January 1964 attacked Somali border posts and adjacent towns to warn Mogadishu to cease supporting the rebels.

[64] According to Somali prime minister Abdirazak Haji Hussein, government officials across the country were summoned back to Mogadishu in early February after reports of a large scale incursion by the Ethiopian military on the northern frontier.

The Soviet supplies had not yet reached us, and the only weapons we had for our forces were some World War II machine guns and artillery..."[65] On Friday, 7 February, the first serious fighting began when the two militaries clashed between the cities of Hargeisa and Jijiga along the northern Somali-Ethiopian frontier.

[75] The two sides became engaged in trench warfare less than 100 yards apart and during the fighting Somali mortars scored a direct strike on a munitions depot, destroying an Ethiopian military camp.

[81] Despite the ceasefire at Tog Wajaale the day before, on the 12 February 1964, fighting continued and began spreading further south along the border, with the majority of combat taking place on the Somali side.

[85] That day both sides broadcast their perspectives on the reasons for the continuing conflict via radio: Addis Abba Radio Service in Amharic broadcast 1100 GMT:[86]The Somali Republic is the only government which has entrenched in its constitution clauses providing tor expansion in an age when the destruction of European leaders who embarked on expansion is now remembered as a good salutary lesson...But the little Somali Republic adopted this policy of greater Somalia, which was first introduced by colonialists, three years ago.

His Imperial Majesty has informed many government leaders and heads of state the conflict can cease only if Abdirashid abandons his expansionist policy; otherwise Ethiopia must ensure that her national sovereignty and dignity are respected.

[91][89] On Monday, 17 February, the ceasefire appeared to hold and Premier Abdirashid Ali Shermarke of Somalia reported at a news conference the Ethiopian frontier had been quiet for the day.

[46] The next day, the Somali government further claimed that Ethiopian troops had become engaged in combat with civilians and soldiers in the border village of Habas, and warned that the renewed fighting jeopardized the Khartoum talks.

[101] The spokesman for Ethiopian Information Ministry announced on Addis radio that the government "categorically denied" bombing Haregisa and described the Somali claims to the contrary as false and unfounded.

[105] On 8 April Ethiopia announced it had withdrawn all its troops from the border area in dispute with Somalia and a delegation met with Somali officials to start a peacekeeping operation in the region.

[107] Over the next few months, Somali - Ethiopian relations warmed, and the two sides signed an accord in Khartoum, Sudan, agreeing to withdraw their troops from the border, cease hostile propaganda, and start peace negotiations.

[14] In mid February, US Air Force transport aircraft flying out from West Germany delivered plane loads of both arms and ammunition to aid the Ethiopian army.

[7] In Somalia the conflict is considered a triumph, as the war is viewed as a victory by a poorly equipped and inexperienced military against a numerically superior aggressor through the successful defence of the Somali frontier.

[125] In the view of former Somali prime minister Abdirazak Haji Hussein, despite success on by the SNA on the front line, dwindling reserves of military supplies and equipment had become a dire issue by late March 1964.

The desperate logistical situation was so severe that it threatened the SNA's combat capacity, prompting many within the Somali government to worry that a potential extended conflict would risk military disaster.

[127][120] According to Professor Harold G. Marcus, "Initially, the Somalis did well against the Ethiopians, but advantages in numbers and especially in air power won the day for Addis Abba...The imperial high command was nonetheless plunged into gloom, first by the successes of the guerrillas and, second, by the poor performance of the army."

[28] In direct response to the lackluster performance of the army during the opening stage of the war Defence Minister General Merid Mengesha immediately requested emergency military equipment from the U.S. government.

[15] These concerns were confirmed following signing of the peace accord between Somalia and Ethiopia, when leader of the Ogaden insurgency Muktal Dahir declared he would ignore the truce, stating:"My people are under no one's jurisdiction and take orders from no one but me.

The Ethiopian government also introduced a new policy of land registration to encourage Amhara farmers to resettle in the valuable pastureland's in and around the Ogaden that were used by Somali nomads' herds as grazing areas.

[133] Most members of the OAU were alienated by idea Somali irredentism and feared that if a Greater Somalia project was successful, the example might inspire their own ethnic minorities divided by colonial borders to agitate for secession.