Battle of Senafe

Battle of Senafe

Part of: Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-1896)

Contemporary heroization in an Italian magazine

date	January 15, 1895 to January 16, 1895
place	Senafe , Italian Eritrea
output	Italian victory
consequences	Destruction of the Tigrin army, Italian invasion of Tigray

Parties to the conflict
Tigray	Italy
Commander
Mengesha Yohannes	Oreste Baratieri Federico Ciccodicola
Troop strength
at least 5,500 men	up to 4,000 men
losses
2000 dead and wounded	123 dead, 192 wounded

In the battle of Senafe on January 15 and 16, 1895, Italian colonial troops destroyed the remnants of the Tigrin army that had withdrawn after the battle of Coatit the day before . Both battles are classified by some historians as the beginning of the Italo-Ethiopian War , while others assign them to the end of the previous Eritrea War .

Starting position

To an invasion of the Italian general Oreste Baratieri in the Ethiopian province of Tigray forestall, the ruler of Tigray, was Ras Mengesha Yohannes in Italian Eritrea invaded. In the Battle of Coatit , however, he was repulsed by Baratieri on January 13 and 14, 1895 respectively . Ras Mengesha's army had already lost 4,500 dead and wounded of 10,000 men and consumed almost all ammunition for the few rifles.

Attack on Senafe

Ras Mengesha wanted to bring the rest of his army back to Tigray and replenish it with reserves. He didn't get far, however. Already on the evening of January 15th, Baratieri, who was chasing him, caught up with him in Senafe near Coatit . On the Amba Tericà mountain on the northern edge of the Senafe depression, the artillery battery of Captain Ciccodicola was in position. In the course of the Italian artillery fire and the fighting that lasted until the next morning, Ras Mengesha lost another 2,000 men, including some of his best military commanders. Ras Mengesha managed to escape to Tigray only with difficulty with a few remaining faithful. The Italians, on the other hand, who had been reinforced all night by advancing units, numbered about 4,000 men after the battle. The entire Ras Mengesha camp fell into their hands.

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  Battery of Captain Ciccodicola at Senafe ("Il Secolo Illustrato")

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  Baratieri's attack on Ras Mengesha's camp ("La Tribuna Illustrata")

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  Italians at the shelling of the Senafe valley ("L'Illustrazione Italiana")

Invasion of Tigrays

The almost complete defeat and the defeat of the Tigrin army cleared the way for a large-scale and far-reaching invasion of Tigray. Baratieri gathered his troops at Senafe and in January 1895 the Italians occupied Adua , Adigrat and Tigrays capital Mek'ele . With the beginning of the rainy season in April 1895 they interrupted their advance and at least cleared Adua again. Ras Mengesha camped with his remaining troops at Mek'ele very close to the Italians and raised a new army with Ras Alula Engida .

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  Ras Mengesha (left) on the march back ("L'Illustrazione Italiana")

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  Italian advance on Mek'ele ("L'Illustrazione Italiana")

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  Oreste Baratieri on the advance on Mek'ele ("Il Secolo Illustrato")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Hamilton Shinn: Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia , pp. 69, 73 and 273,. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Andrzej Bartnicki, Joanna Mantel-Niećko: History of Ethiopia - From the beginnings to the present , Part 1, pages 326 and 330f. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1978
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Enciclopedia Italiana (1933): Italo-Abissina, Guerra
4. ^ ^{A b} Enciclopedia Italiana (1932): Coatit