Independent Eritrea, Somali East Ogaden-Haud, Ethiopian Zeila

Eritrea did not want to be part of Ethiopia, Britain wanted more Somali lands to be part of an independent Somalia, and Britain was willing to cede a strip of territory in British Somaliland including the port of Zeila to Ethiopia.

So what if Eritrea had been made into an independent Republic, Britain got Ethiopia to cede territory in its east (let's say a straight line from Dolo Odo to Hargeysa) and Britain ceded a slice of territory to Ethiopia including the port of Zeila?
 
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Eritrea did not want to be part of Ethiopia, Britain wanted more Somali lands to be part of an independent Somalia, and Britain was willing to cede a strip of territory in British Somaliland including the port of Zeila to Ethiopia.

So what if Eritrea had been made into an independent Republic, Britain got Ethiopia to cede territory in its east (let's say a straight line from Dolo Odo to Hargeysa) and Britain ceded a slice of territory to Ethiopia including the port of Zeila?

If Zeila goes to Ethiopia, you can expect Somali irridentism to focus on that instead of the Ogaden. I've sometimes seen the claim that the Ogaden War can be explained as Siad trying to increase his power base by getting more Darod Somalis into the SDR, which would mean he wouldn't go after the Dir-populated area around Zeila, but I don't really think that holds up. Though the Ogaden was home to primarily Darod-tribe Somalis, of which Siad's Marehan clan was a part, the OTL Somali Democratic Republic's "All Somalia under a Socialist Banner" program was also looking to grab the non-Darod Northern Frontier District of Kenya after they got the Ogaden.

Aside from the issue of irridentism, I'm not sure exactly how politics would play out in Somalia. The tribal favoritism, nepotism, and corruption of Shermarke's Somali Republic were deeply unpopular amongst the urban populations of Somalia (basically all of them, including later SNM strongholds like Burao), the intellectuals, and the heavily communist-inspired military/gendarme. If the Barre-Kediye-Koshel troika takes power like OTL, though, Siad might not successfully outmanuver Kediye (by far the most popular of the three) and get him geeked in this scenario.
 
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