Yekatit 12 is a date in the Ethiopian calendar which is commonly used to refer to the indiscriminate massacre and imprisonment of Ethiopians by fascist Italian occupation forces following an attempted assassination of Rodolfo Graziani (The butcher of Ethiopia) on February 19, 1937. (Getty images)
Italy’s Shame: The Massacre in Ethiopia
In 1937 Italian forces occupying the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa began a three day campaign of killings which left thousands of Ethiopian civilians dead. Alex Last has been speaking to Ambassador Imru Zelleke, who witnessed the massacre as a child. The violence began after a grenade attack wounded Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, the man appointed by Mussolini to govern Ethiopia. Italian forces had invaded the country in 1935 as Mussolini tried to expand Italian colonial territories in East Africa. Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia, was forced into exile. Ethiopia was a member of the League of Nations, but despite appeals, Western powers refused to intervene to stop the Italian invasion.
The massacre is known in Ethiopia by it’s date in the Ethiopian calender,Yekatit 12.
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