Battle of Dogali

Battle of Dogali

The battle of Dogali by Michele Cammarano.
Date January 26, 1887
Location Dogali, near Massawa, Eritrea
Result Ethiopian victory
Belligerents
 Italy  Ethiopia
Commanders and leaders
Tommaso De Cristofori Ras Alula Engida
Strength
~500 infantry unknown
Casualties and losses
~420 killed
~80 wounded		 unknown

The Battle of Dogali was fought on 26 January 1887 between Italy and Ethiopia in Dogali near Massawa, in present-day Eritrea.

On his own initiative, Ras Alula Engida, then governor of Emperor Yohannes IV, had attacked the Italian-controlled town of Sahati on the day prior. Hundreds of his men were slaughtered by cannon fire, while only four Italians were injured, forcing Ras Alula to pull his men back.

On January 26, a battalion of 500 men under Colonel Tommaso De Cristofori, sent to reinforce the Italian garrison at Sahati, were ambushed by Ras Alula's men at Dogali. Although the Italians fought back all were killed, except for eighty wounded men who were able to escape notice by the Ethiopians and be rescued.

Although a victory for the Ethiopians, Haggai Erlich notes that this incident only encouraged the Italians to intrigue with Yohannes' rival, Menelik II, then ruler only of Shewa, and encourage his insubordination towards his Emperor.[1]

This battle was celebrated under the Derg regime, and Mengistu Haile Mariam commemorated the centennial with much attention, including the erection of a monument topped with a red star on the battlefield. Following Eritrean independence, the monument was removed. Paul B. Henze diplomatically notes in a footnote, "When I crossed the battlefield in 1996, I could detect no trace of the monument."[2] Erlich provides more information: when Eritrean troops gained control of the area in 1989, "a prominent commander of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front,and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Petros Solomon himself was delighted to blast Mengistu's monument of Ras Alula."[3] This could be attributed to the fact that while Alula was an administrator appointed by Yohannes IV over small parts of the Eritrean highlands, he committed many atrocities against the local biher-Tigrinya population, sowing seeds of discord. Observers, including Erlich and others, attribute this to Eritrean Tigrinya views of their own relationship with Ethiopia as a whole.[4] Since Alula fought for the Empire and not for Tigray itself, he is viewed as a traitor on the Eritrean side of the border, a hero on the Ethiopian side.

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Notes

  1. ^ Haggai Erlich, Ras Alula and the Scramble for Africa (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1996), pp. 105f
  2. ^ Henze, Layers of Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 157 n.20.
  3. ^ Erlich, Ras Alula, p. xiii.
  4. ^ Prunier, Gérard (1998-11-01). "The Ethio-Eritrean Conflict: An Essay in Interpretation". UNHCR Refworld. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Archived from the original on 2007-06-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20070625145854/http://www.unhcr.org/publ/RSDCOI/3ae6a6b74.html. Retrieved 2007-11-01.