Abyssinia mobilizes

The Abyssinian Empire made the decision to mobilize after exhausting many avenues to peace at its disposal. Emperor Selassie has little to give his army but they will have to make do with what they have. The Abyssinian Army has about 500.000 new recruits with spears and bows as weapons.

Abyssinia does have military weaponry but these are antiquated. They have 200 pieces of artillery mounted on rigid gun carriages. They also posses 50 anti-aircraft guns ranging from 20mm Oerlikons, 75mm Schneiders and Vickers. For tanks, they have some Fiat models and Ford Trucks with armor. For air support, they have three Potez-25 biplanes.

There are 400,000 rifles of many types in all conditions for the men to use.

The Bottom Line: Abyssinia is very ill-equipped for war with Italy.

Abyssinia appeals to League of Nations

In an effort to rectify problems with Italy that have risen in the past month, Abyssinia has made an appeal to the League of Nations. Emperor Selassie made a personal appeal to arbitrate between Abyssinia and Italy.

Italy Abyssinian relations get heated

Six days ago on December 5th, there was a skirmish at Walwal between between Abyssinian troops and Somali troops in service to Italy. The reasons for Italy's alleged aggressive activity are unknown. However, Italy claims that the Abyssinians were armed with machine guns. The Abyssinians claim that the Italians had two tanks and three aircraft. They also claim that the Italians attacked them.

The ratio of casualties was 3:1 with 150 Abyssinians and 50 Italians dead.

On December 6th, the Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, protested against aggression that occurred at the border town of Walwal the day before.

Italy demanded an apology two days later. Furthermore, today, the Italians demanded financial and strategic compensation.