Italian Crackdown in Ethiopia

Date: February 19, 1937 • Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Italian forces began a brutal crackdown on Ethiopians following an attempted assassination of Rodolfo Graziani, the viceroy of Italian East Africa, in Addis Ababa.

Yekatit 12, also known in Italy as the Addis Ababa massacre, is a date in the Ge'ez calendar which refers to the massacre and imprisonment of Ethiopians by the Italian occupation forces following an attempted assassination of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, on 19 February 1937. Graziani had led the Italian forces to victory over the Ethiopians in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and was supreme governor of Italian East Africa. It has been described as the worst massacre in Ethiopian history.