page_title: Yekatit 12
section_title: Attack on Graziani
hierarchical_section_title: Yekatit 12 / Attack on Graziani
caption_attribution_description: English: Victims of the Addis Ababa massacre 2
context_page_description: Yekatit 12 is a date in the Ethiopian calendar which refers to the massacre 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 February 19, 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. This has been described as the worst massacre in Ethiopian history.
  Estimates vary on the number of people killed in the three days that followed the attempt on Graziani's life. Ethiopian sources estimated that 30,000 people were killed by the Italians, while Italian sources claimed that only a few hundred were killed. A 2017 history of the massacre estimated that 19,200 people were killed, 20 percent of the population of Addis Ababa. 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.
context_section_description: Despite having unquestioned control over the new Italian East Africa at the beginning of February 1937, Graziani still mistrusted its inhabitants. During the previous year, following the capture of Jijiga by his men, he was inspecting an Ethiopian Orthodox church when he fell through a concealed hole in the floor, which he was convinced had been prepared as a mantrap for him. "From that incident," writes Anthony Mockler, "it is possible to date his paranoiac hatred of and suspicion towards the Coptic clergy." Despite this, to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Naples, Graziani announced he would personally distribute alms to the poor on Friday, 19 February, at the Genete Leul Palace (also known as the Little Gebbi).
  In the crowd that formed that Friday morning were two young Eritreans living in Ethiopia named Abraha Deboch and Mogus Asgedom. Finding their fortunes limited in the Italian colony, they had come to Ethiopia to enroll in the Menelik II School, where recent events had overtaken them. Apparently accommodating himself to the new administration, Abraha gained employment with the Fascist Political Bureau, where his Eritrean origin, knowledge of Italian, and familiarity with the city made him useful. However, according to Richard Pankhurst, Abraha Deboch was bitterly opposed to the Italians, especially its racist practices. Before leaving their house, Abraha had placed an Italian flag on the wooden floor, driven a bayonet through it, then tied an Ethiopian flag to the bayonet.
  The official ceremony began as might be expected. Graziani made a speech, a number of Ethiopian notables made their submission to the victors, Italian planes made a fly-over above the city, and at 11 o'clock officials began distributing the promised alms to priests and the poor.
  Abraha and Mogus managed to slip through the crowd to the bottom of the steps to the Little Gebbi, then began throwing grenades. According to one account, they managed to lob 10 of them before escaping in the resulting confusion. According to Richard Pankhurst they were rushed from the scene by a third conspirator, a taxi driver named Simeyon Adefres. Pankhurst also credits him with providing the grenades that Abraha and Mogus threw.
  Behind them, the dead included Abuna Qerellos's umbrella-bearer. The wounded included the Abuna himself, the Vice-Governor General Armando Petretti, General Liotta of the Air Force, and the Viceroy himself; one grenade exploded next to him, sending 365 fragments into his body. Graziani was rushed to the Italian hospital where he was operated on immediately, and saved. General Liotta lost his leg to the attack.
  For a while Abraha and Mogus hid at the ancient monastery of Debre Libanos but soon moved on, seeking sanctuary in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Somewhere in Gojjam local inhabitants, always suspicious of strangers, murdered them.
caption: Ethiopian victims of the Addis Ababa massacre
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