[11] At the end of 1978 the first major outflow of refugees numbering in the hundreds of thousands headed for Somalia, and were bombed and strafed during the exodus by the Ethiopian military.

[12] This placed immense strain on the Somali Democratic Republic's (SDR) frail economy, forcing the government to increasingly rely on foreign aid to function.

Thousands of pastoral Somalis were also driven from the region, bringing much of their livestock, which led to disastrous ecological impacts as Somalia's limited grazing land became overburdened.

[23] In response to rising dissent, the Somali government violently suppressed opposition movements and clans perceived to be a threat with the military and elite security forces.

[17] In late June 1982, 15,000 Ethiopian army troops and thousands of SSDF rebels invaded Somalia in the Hiran and Mudug region.

[25] The Ethiopian and SSDF forces never reached their objectives of Galkayo and Beledweyne, but were instead halted to a stalemate at border towns of Balanbale and Galdogob.

[28] Irritated by this development, the Ethiopian government put the head of the SSDF Abdullahi Yusuf in jail, where he remained until the Fall of the Derg regime in 1991.

[29] During SSDF internal fighting during 1983 and 1984, Ethiopian security forces entered their camps and arrested the rebels central committee members.

[13] In April 1981, a group of Isaaq businesspeople, students, former civil servants and former politicians who lived in the United Kingdom founded the Somali National Movement (SNM( in London.

From there the SNM successfully launched a guerrilla war against the Barre regime through incursions and hit and run operations on army positions in the northern Isaaq territories before returning to Ethiopia.

[35] The Red Berets systematically smashed the small reservoirs in the area around Galkayo so as to deny water to the Umar Mahamuud Majeerteen sub-clans and their herds.

In May and June 1979, more than 2,000 Umar Mahamuud, the Majeerteen sub-clan of Colonel Ahmad, died of thirst in the waterless area northeast of Galkayo, Garoowe, and Jariban.

In Galkayo, members of the Victory Pioneers, the urban militia known for harassing civilians, raped large numbers of Majeerteen women.

The harsh reprisals, widespread bombing and burning of villages by Barre regime followed every time there was an attack by SNM believed to be hiding in Ethiopia.

[38] The government attack included the levelling and complete destruction of the second and third largest cities in Somalia,[39] Hargeisa (which was 90 per cent destroyed)[40] and Burao (70 per cent destroyed) respectively through a campaign of aerial bombardment, and had caused 400,000 Somalis[41] (primarily of the Isaaq clan) to flee their land and cross the border to Hartasheikh in Ethiopia as refugees, creating the world's largest refugee camp then (1988),[42] with another 400,000 being internally displaced.

A number of Hawiye elites had joined the earlier SODAF, SSDF and the SNM movements before converging to form their own branch in the very late 80s, the United Somali Congress.

According to Ali, "with funds and clan appeals, he [Barre] was able to entice the bulk of SSDF fighters to return from Ethiopia and participate in his genocidal wars against the Isaaq in the north and later against the Hawiye in the South, including Mogadisho".

[49] Faced with saboteurs by day and sniper fire by night, Siad Barre ordered remaining units of the badly demoralized Red Berets to kill civilians on a large scale.

As the city celebrated victory, Siad Barre, conceding defeat for the first time in twenty years, retreated into his bunker at the military barracks near the airport.

The most shocking and gruesome revenge Siad Barre took against the Hawiye, in particular the Hawadle sub-clan was the massacre he ordered in January 1991, just before he escaped Mogadishu for his clan strongholds in the deep south of Somalia.

This was a major turning point for the USC and further fueled the need to overthrow Siad Barre's regime - eventually proving successful as he was overthrown in late January.

This incident in Beledweyne was the major cause for clan tensions as Siad Barre's militias mainly consisted of Marehan, Ogaden and Majeerteen militias, led by General Morgan (Majeerteen) - who had caused many civilian deaths towards Isaaq's (SNM) by sending bombers to attack the northern cities, including Hargeisa (Somalia's second largest city).

These actions by Barre sealed his fate, as by 1990 the predominantly Hawiye USC (United Somali Congress) military group had beset the capital of Mogadishu.

[50] Barre's hostility towards the Ogaden was in part derived from the huge influx of their clan members in the aftermath of war with Ethiopia, which resulted in a swelling of their numbers.