Battle of Anchem - Battle

Battle

Negus Tafari Makonnen called a chitet, the traditional mustering of the provincial levies. Ostensibly he was raising an army to finally crush the ongoing revolt in Wollo. At the time, Ras Gugsa Welle was not in open revolt and Empress Zewditu was still pleading with him not to go into open revolt. In the end, as part of the government, the Empress was in the strange position of being formally on the same side as King Tafari and being against her husband who was rebelling on her behalf.

The response to the chitet, like the initial call to suppress the revolt in Wollo, was less than enthusiastic initially. The newly appointed Minister of War, Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu, was only able to raise the Mahel Sefari with 16,000 men pledged to it. Worse, by January 1930, Mulugeta Yeggazu found himself with only 2,000 men as he gathered in Dessie. Worse yet, Gugsa Welle was now in open revolt and he had already gathered an army in Debre Tabor of 35,000 utterly devoted men. He was able to do this even without the forces from Tigre and Gojjam.

On 24 February, Empress Zewditu and King Tafari issued the Imperial Proclamation of Yekatit. The proclamation declared that Ras Gugsa Welle was a rebel. Attached to the proclamation was an anathema signed by the Coptic Abuna Kyrilos and by five new bishops, Sauiros, Abraham, Petros, Mikael, and Isaac. The anathema was addressed to all monasteries of Begemder. It concluded "And therefore, you may follow Ras Gugsa Welle, you may attach yourself to him, be cursed and excomunicated; your life and your flesh are outcasts from Christian society." The devotion of many of the men following Ras Gugsa Welle was shaken by the proclamation and its attached anathema.

In mid-March, Ras Mulugeta marched the Mahel Sefari from Dessie to Debre Tabor to face the rebellious Gugsa Welle. With him were five cannon, seven machine guns, and something entirely new for Ethiopian warfare: Aircraft.