Internal army purges sapped Ethiopian resistance in the Ogaden

Evidence

Later in September as the massive Russian airlift of M.I.G.s, tanks and heavy weapons to Addis Ababa was reported to have gathered momentum, the W.S.L.F. achieved their greatest triumph: the liberation of Jigjiga, the main Ethiopian military headquarters in the Ogaden. Their opponents – whose morale had been weakened by successive bloody internal army purges – had offered little resistance, the Ethiopian third division retreating, according to some sources mutinously, from their key defensive position on the Marda Pass which commanded the road to Harar. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 565

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Internal clan and ethnic divisions crippled the Western Somali struggle for the Ogaden. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 583

Related

• Internal clan and ethnic divisions crippled the Western Somali struggle for the Ogaden. (similarity 0.82)
• A Cuban-armoured Ethiopian offensive took Jigjiga from an unexpected direction (similarity 0.81)
• Internal clan divisions fatally undermined the Western Somali liberation struggle (similarity 0.80)
• Russian and Cuban reinforcements turned the Ogaden offensive into stalemate (similarity 0.79)
• The Ogaden defeat’s divisive forces corroded Somalia’s political stability (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Internal clan and ethnic divisions crippled the Western Somali struggle for the Ogaden. #corroborates (0.70) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 583