Ethiopia–Somalia border

The Ethiopia–Somalia border stretches 1,500 kilometers. In the 19th century, both Britain and Italy contributed to shaping the modern border, on behalf of their colonies of British and Italian Somaliland. The Somali people were thus under British, French, Italian and Ethiopian rule. During World War II, Britain gained control of the Ogaden and Haud territories and returned them to Ethiopia in 1954, but not delimited beyond the provisional line (sometimes labeled on maps as the Provisional Administrative Line). Since 1960 independence, the border has suffered serious skirmishes involving both countries' soldiers. From 1977 to 1978, Ethiopia and Somalia fought in the Ogaden War led by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam and General Siad Barre respectively. The EPRDF government demarcated the border of Ogaden into Somali Region. Somalia is located at the base of Ethiopia's protrude southeast region; from the South, it is bounded by Wabi Shebelle and Genale Valley.