[4] During the nineteenth century, Degehabur was an important stopping point for caravans crossing the Haud for Hargeisa and Berbera, but when Major H.G.C.

According to Swayne, at the time of his visit "there were formerly many square miles of jowdri cultivation, which has been abandoned within the last few years, and now there is only left an immense area of stubble and the ruins of the village.

[6] In 1927, Ethiopian soldiers attacked the British governor of Somaliland while he was in Degehabur on a hunting trip, killing eight of his bodyguards.

Despite the construction of a series of fortifications south of the town, the Italians under General Rodolfo Graziani defeated the Ethiopian defenders in the Battle of the Ogaden, and occupied Degehabur 30 April 1936.

[8] In the East African campaign in World War II, the Nigerian Brigade drove the Italians from the town in March 1941.

Degehabur was bombarded by artillery from nearby high ground, which was followed by a killing spree when army troops later entered the settlement.

[11][12] Degahabur was defended by the 11th Brigade of the Ethiopian Army at the beginning of the Ogaden War, until the unit was ordered at the end of July 1977 to withdraw to Jijiga.

[14] Haji Ahmed nur Sheikh Mumin, imam of the Degehabur mosque, was one of those arrested in 1994 for supporting the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

[15] Partly in response to this attack, the Ethiopian Army began confiscating commercial vehicles that moved goods into the conflict-affected zones of Somali Region.