Somalia’s Council of Ministers has officially reversed the 2017 decision by then President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo to classify the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) as a terrorist organization. The original designation was widely seen as political cover for the controversial extradition of ONLF commander Abdikarim Muse “Qalbi Dhagax” to Ethiopia an act that badly damaged Farmaajo’s image as a pan-Somali nationalist. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, who met Qalbi Dhagax in 2020 to apologize for his extradition and the ban, led the push to rescind the designation, calling it “meaningless and detestable.”