| Gondrand Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War | |
 Victims of the massacre | |
| Location | Near Mai Lahlà, Ethiopia |
| Date | February 13, 1936 |
| Target | Italian workers of the Gondrand Company |
| Victims | 68 killed 27 wounded 4 missing 40 Ethiopian soldiers killed |
| Perpetrators |  Imperial Ethiopian Army |
The Gondrand massacre was a 1936 Ethiopian attack on Italian workers of the Gondrand company. It was publicized by Fascist Italy in an attempt to justify its ongoing invasion of Ethiopia. [1] [2] [3]
The Gondrand massacre occurred on February 13, 1936, near the northern Ethiopian town of Mai Lahlà, the current Rama. [3] [4] A camp of civilian workers for the logistics company Gondrand, engaged at the time in road construction, was attacked at dawn by Ethiopian soldiers under the orders of Ras Imru. [3] The construction yard was equipped with about 15 muskets, and the workers also used their work tools as defense weapons, but they were overwhelmed by the surprise attack of the Ethiopians. [5]
The massacre took place around the same time as the Battle of Amba Aradam, fought from 10 to 19 February 1936, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Mai Lahlà. [6]
Of the 130 workers present, [7] 68 Italians were killed, and the bodies of 17 of them were castrated in contravention of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's explicit order not to mutilate enemy corpses, while 27 others were wounded and four went missing. [2] Of these, two were later confirmed to have been taken prisoner. [2]
About 40 Ethiopian soldiers also died in the attack, mostly because a store of gelignite exploded. [3] Retaliatory massacres were carried out by Italian soldiers against Ethiopian civilians in the aftermath of the attack, resulting in untold deaths. [3] [8]
Italian authorities generally instructed journalists to avoid describing Italian losses during the war, but in this case the story was deliberately promoted for its propaganda value in depicting Ethiopians as barbaric. [1] [3]
The killing of Italian pilot Tito Minniti and his copilot happened some weeks before and together with this massacre was the reason given by the Italians for the use of gas against the Ethiopians, a claim supported by historians like Tripoli and Pedriali. [9] However, as professor of Italian studies David Forgacs argues, while "the Italians sought to give maximum publicity to the massacre of Italian civilians by Ethiopians at the Gondrand camp they were equally strenuous in their efforts to prevent records or reports of their own massacres of civilians". [3]
In response to photographic evidence that some Ethiopian troops had ignored the order against mutilating corpses, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister was forced to admit that it had happened, but argued that it should be seen as an act of protest against Italian atrocities. [2]
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The Battle of Adwa was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Ethiopian army led by Ras Makonen Wolde Mikael managed to defeat the invading Italian force led by Oreste Baratieri on Sunday, March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia and Liberia still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.
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The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Italian Invasion, and in Italy as the Ethiopian War. It is seen as an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations before the outbreak of the Second World War.
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Tito Minniti was an Italian pilot who was killed during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935 near Degehabur. It is unknown whether he died in combat or after being captured by Ethiopian forces. His death and alleged torture became an atrocity story proffered by the Italian government to justify their use of mustard gas against Ethiopian civilians. Minniti was posthumously decorated with the Italian Gold Medal of Valour.
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