Yekatit 12

Yekatit 12
Yekatit 12
Part of the Second Italo–Ethiopian War
	Ethiopian victims of the Yekatit 12 massacre being unloaded from a truck
Location	Addis Ababa
Date	19 February 1937
Deaths	Estimates range from 1,400 to 30,000 Ethiopian civilians
Victims	Ethiopian civilians, Ethiopian Arbegnoch
Perpetrators	Italian soldiers

Yekatit 12 (Amharic: የካቲት ፲፪, romanized: Yekatīt 12), also known in Italy as the Addis Ababa massacre (Italian: Strage di Addis Ababa), is a date in the Ge'ez calendar which refers to the massacre^[1] and imprisonment of Ethiopians by the Italian occupation forces following an attempted assassination of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Marquis of Negele, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, on 19 February 1937. Graziani had led the Italian forces to victory over the Ethiopians in the Second Italian invasion of Ethiopia and was supreme governor of Italian East Africa. It has been described as the worst massacre in Ethiopian history.^[1]

Estimates vary on the number of people killed in the three days that followed the attempt on Graziani's life. Ethiopian sources claimed the Italians killed 30,000 people, while other estimates typically range between 1,400 and 6,000 deaths;^[2] a 2017 study of the massacre stated that approximately 19,200 people were killed, 20 percent of the population of Addis Ababa.^[3] Over the following week, numerous Ethiopians suspected of opposing Italian rule were rounded up and executed, including members of the Black Lions and other members of the aristocracy. Emperor Haile Selassie had sent 125 men abroad to receive college education, but most of them were killed.^[4] Many more were imprisoned, even collaborators such as Ras Gebre Haywot, the son of Ras Mikael of Wollo, Brehane Markos, and Ayale Gebre, who had helped the Italians identify the two men who made an attempt on Graziani's life.^[5]

^ ^a ^b Campbell, Ian (20 July 2017). "Italy and the Addis Ababa massacre". The Economist. Vol. 418, no. 9053. London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Economist Newspaper Limited (The Economist Group). ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
^ Angelo Del Boca (2014). Italiani, brava gente?. Vicenza: Neri Pozza. p. 222. ISBN 978-88-6559-178-9.
^ Campbell 2017.
^ Keller, Edmund Joseph (1991). Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic. Midland books (2nd ed.). Bloomington, United States of America: Indiana University Press/IU Press (Indiana University). ISBN 978-025320646-6.
^ Sbacchi, Alberto (1 August 1977). "Italy and the Treatment of the Ethiopian Aristocracy, 1937-1940". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 10 (2). Boston: African Studies Center of the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies: 209–241. doi:10.2307/217347. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 217347.

[eco-1] Campbell, Ian (20 July 2017). "Italy and the Addis Ababa massacre". The Economist. Vol. 418, no. 9053. London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Economist Newspaper Limited (The Economist Group). ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2017.

[Del_Boca-2] Angelo Del Boca (2014). Italiani, brava gente?. Vicenza: Neri Pozza. p. 222. ISBN 978-88-6559-178-9.

[:0-3] Campbell 2017.

[4] Keller, Edmund Joseph (1991). Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic. Midland books (2nd ed.). Bloomington, United States of America: Indiana University Press/IU Press (Indiana University). ISBN 978-025320646-6.

[5] Sbacchi, Alberto (1 August 1977). "Italy and the Treatment of the Ethiopian Aristocracy, 1937-1940". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 10 (2). Boston: African Studies Center of the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies: 209–241. doi:10.2307/217347. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 217347.

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