Battle of Dogali

The battle of Dogali by Michele Cammarano

Date	26 January 1887
Location	Dogali, near Massawa, Eritrea
Result	Ethiopian victory

Belligerents

Italy

Ethiopia

Commanders and leaders

Tommaso De Cristofori

Ras Alula Engida

Strength

~500 infantry

7,000

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.

The Italians (after their unification in 1861) wanted to create their own colonies in Africa and started to occupy coastal Eritrea. Soon they were at war with the Ethiopians in 1885.

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

The besieged Italians needed ammunitions and requested supplies.

On January 26, a battalion of 500 men (mostly Italians and a few Eritrean Askari) under Colonel Tommaso De Cristofori, sent to reinforce the Italian garrison at Sahati, were attacked while in march by Ras Alula's men at Dogali. Although the 500 Italians fought back bravely against 7,000 Ethiopians, holding out for hours until they exhausted all ammunition, nearly all were then killed, except for eighty wounded men who were able to escape unoticed by the Ethiopians and be successfully rescued.

Although a small 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.

Italians felt that the battle of Dogali was an insult to be avenged, and then started to attack Ethiopia in the following years in order to get revenge. This would later lead to the First Italo-Ethiopian War which ended in their defeat at Adwa. In 1936, they finally obtained their revenge with the Second Italo-Ethiopian War with a brief occupation only to be defeated by a joint British and Ethiopian liberation force.

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