Battle of Agordat

Battle of Agordat
Part of Mahdist War

Colonel Giuseppe Arimondi
Date December 21, 1893[1][2]
Location Agordat, Eritrea
Result Italian victory[3][2]
Belligerents
Kingdom of Italy Mahdist Sudan
Commanders and leaders
Giuseppe Arimondi
[3][4][5]		 Emir Ahmed Ali †
[3][4][5]
Strength
Italian troops:[1][4]
42 Italian officers
23-33 Italian of other rank
2,318 Askari troops
8 mountain guns		 Mahdi troops:[1][4]
10,000-12,000 Mahdists
Including 600 elite Baqqara cavalry
Casualties and losses
108 killed[1][4]
124 wounded[1][4]		 1,000+ killed[4][5]
1,000~ wounded[1]
180 men, 700 rifles and
72 flags captured [1][4]
Battles of the Mahdist War

The Battle of Agordat was fought in late December 1893, between an Italian colonial troop and Mahdists from the Sudan. Emir Ahmed Ali campaigned against the Europeans in eastern Sudan and led about 10-12,000 men east from Kassala against 2,400 Italians at Agordat, west of Asmara, commanded by Colonel Arimondi. Over 1,000 Dervishes, including the Emir, were killed in a complete rout, thus achieving:[6]

"...the first decisive victory yet won by Europeans against the Sudanese revolutionaries,..."

A year later, Italian colonial forces seized Kassala.

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f g McLachlan, Sean (2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896. Colchester. 
  2. ^ a b Wylde, Augustus Blandy (1900). Modern Abyssinia. London. 
  3. ^ a b c Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A-E. Westport. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h D'Avray, Anthony (2000). The Nakfa Documents. Wiesbaden. 
  5. ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh (1911). The Encyclopedia Britannica: Vol.9. Chicago. 
  6. ^ Barclay, Glen St John (1973). The rise and fall of the new Roman empire: Italy's bid for world power, 1890-1943. London.