Supporters of the ONLF generally aspire to create an independent, sovereign Somali-majority state consisting primarily of what is now Ethiopia's Somali Region.

ONLF supporters generally refer to the entire area of this future state as Ogaden or Ogadenia even though the name is controversial among some groups because of its clan-affiliation.

[2] Furthermore, the ONLF has an official political programme in which it commits to, among other things, protecting freedom of religion, democratic activity, and the women, children, and minorities of Ogaden.

[6] Writer Mohamed Mohamud Abdi argues that the territory has been under occupation since the Scramble for Africa, and that the inhabitants have been unable to choose their own name Ogadenia for the land.

Later that year the Ethiopian government forces attacked AIAI's headquarters in the region killing several high ranking figures.

[12][13] By the time Mengistu regime fell, the ONLF had significantly consolidated its position among ethnic Somalis in Ogaden, and joined the Transitional Government.

The ONLF announced elections in December 1992 for District Five (what became the Somali Region) in Ethiopia, and won 80% of the seats of the local parliament.

Since 1992, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) dominated EPRDF sought to curb Somali demands for self-determination by influencing politics in the region.

[13] The 1995 general elections were boycotted by the majority of the ONLF, Al-Itihaad and large segments of the Ogaden population due to governments heavy handed interference in the political process.

While the ONLF was effectively composed of numerous differing groups, the governments political interference and brutal counterinsurgency measures led many Somalis in the Ogaden to rally behind it.

[19] The Ethiopian government took advantage of the War on Terror to routinely label opposition movements terrorists,[21] and accused the ONLF of being associated with and linked to Al-Qaeda.

[17] On 21 May 2006 the ONLF entered into an alliance with five different Ethiopian opposition groups in an effort to strengthen the resistance to the TPLF dominated central government.

On 23 July 2006, the ONLF announced the downing of an Ethiopian military helicopter heading for Somalia and publicly warned that ENDF movements in the region pointed towards an imminent large scale operation.

[26] On 12 August 2006, the Ethiopian government claimed 13 members of the ONLF were killed and several commanders captured as they crossed into Ethiopia from Somalia.

[28]On December 23, the ONLF reported attacking Ethiopian military column that was heading to Somalia, destroying several vehicles and driving the convoy back.

The latest action of this crackdown resulted in the death of foreign relations chief Dr. Mohamed Sirad Dolal at the town of Danan as he met with other ONLF members.

[38] In April 2007, the Ethiopian government imposed a total commercial trade embargo on the war-affected area of the Somali Region (the Fiq, Degehabur, Gode, Korahe, and Werder Zones, where the Ogadeni Somali live), prohibiting all commercial truck movement in the region and across the border into Somalia, as well as the free movement of livestock by foot.

[41] Bereket Simon denied to Reuters that the ONLF had succeeded in capturing any towns, adding, "Their attacks last week were simply the desperate act of a dying force and about 245 of their fighters were killed.

[43] In 2018, the Ethiopian government launched a number of reforms, part of which were removing the ONLF from its list of banned movements and offering the rebels more attractive peace deals.

The ONLF declared a ceasefire in August and signed an official peace deal in October, promising to disarm and transform into a political party.

[1] According to the Chicago Tribune, "As of 2007, human rights groups and media reports accuse Ethiopia – a key partner in Washington's battle against terrorism in the volatile Horn of Africa – of burning villages, pushing nomads off their lands and choking off food supplies in a harsh new campaign of collective punishment against a restive ethnic Somali population in the Ogaden, a vast wilderness of rocks and thorns bordering chaotic Somalia".

[47] During a national holiday ceremony held at the Ogaden town of Jijiga, the grenade thrown at the podium of the stadium also wounded Somali regional president Abdulahi Hassan Mohammed in the leg.

In a separate attack, fifty civilians were injured, including the regional president Abdullahi Hassan, and three artists were killed on May 28, 2007 by the ONLF.

[35] An ONLF attack on the town of the Debeweyin woreda in the Korahe Zone also left ten civilians dead, including two schoolteachers and a pregnant woman.

Another ONLF unit struck in the district of Lahelow near the Ethiopia-Somalia border, reportedly targeting members of the Isma'il Gum'adle sub-clan, twelve of whom were slain.

[49] Despite the ceasefire holding years later and the ONLF being a legally recognized party, in September 2024 Ethiopian military chief Field Marshall Birhanu Jula accused the front of being an 'enemy of the state' which had been allegedly created by Egypt.

[51][52] During October 2024 leaders of the ONLF claimed that only 20% of the 2018 peace agreement’s commitments, such as reintegrating former fighters and resettling displaced communities, have been met.