Bale revolt

Bale revolt
Part of the Ethiopian–Somali conflict, Opposition to Haile Selassie and Conflicts in the Horn of Africa

Location of Bale within the Ethiopian Empire
Date1963–1970
Location
Bale Province, Ethiopia
Result Ethiopian victory[1]
Belligerents
 Ethiopian Empire
Supported by (since 1968):
 United States
 United Kingdom		 Oromo and Somali rebels
Supported by (1963–1969):
Somalia Somali Republic
Commanders and leaders
Haile Selassie I
Jagama Kello		 Waqo Gutu
Halimo Waqo
Adam Jillo
Halima Hassan
Haala Korme
Casualties and losses
Unknown Approx. 700,000 casualties including both insurgents and civilians (Per Asafa Jalata)[2]

The Bale revolt, also known as the Bale Peasant Movement, was an insurgency that took place in the 1960s in the southeastern Ethiopian province of Bale among the local Oromo and Somali populations. The revolt targeted the feudalist system in place during the Ethiopian Empire and was rooted in ethnic and religious grievances.[3][4]

Initially acts of resistance began in 1962 and 1963 as a defensive reaction by peasants to land expropriation, bureaucratic corruption, and exorbitant taxation imposed by the government. However, further clashes and consequent government reprisals eventually transformed the peasants into a decentralized insurgency that would go on to wage a six-year long guerrilla war, ending in 1970.[5][6]

Support from the Somali government that had begun in 1963 was integral to the insurgencies ability to sustain combat operations.[5][7]

  1. ^ Ottawa, Marina (1990). The Political economy of Ethiopia. Praeger Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780275934729.
  2. ^ Jalata, Asafa (2005). Oromia and Ethiopia: State Formation and Ethnonational Conflict, 1868-2004. Red Sea Press. p. 184. ISBN 1569022461.
  3. ^ Mammo, Tirfe (1999). The Paradox of African Poverty. The Red Sea Press. p. 99. ISBN 9781569020494. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2017. The bale revolt was directed against new settlements in the region and the resultant shortage of arable land and high taxation by the central government and the land-lords
  4. ^ Østebø, Terje (2020). Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency, 1963-1970. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108884839. ISBN 978-1-108-83968-6. S2CID 224887633.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Ottaway, Marina (1990). The Political economy of Ethiopia. New York: Praeger. pp. 138–139. ISBN 978-0-275-93472-9.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).