Battle of Guté Dili

The Battle of Guté Dili was fought on 14 October 1888 between an alliance of the Shewan forces of Ras Gobana Dacche and the Wallagga Oromo ruler of Leqa Naqamte, Moroda Bekere, and Mahdist forces under governor Khalil al-Khuzani near Nejo in the modern Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The Mahdist forces were routed, and only Khalil and Muhammad Hassan of Fadasi, who was leading the Bela Shangul contingent, with a small group of Ansar and Berta soldiers, were able to successfully flee the battlefield.[1]

Battle of Guté Dili
Part of the Mahdist War
Date14 October 1888
Location
Nejo, Ethiopia
Result Decisive Shewan victory
Belligerents
Mahdist State Kingdom of Shewa
Commanders and leaders
Khalil al-Khuzani
Muhammad Hassan		 Ras Gobana Dacche
Casualties and losses
Heavy

This engagement represents the high water mark of Mahdist activity in what is now southwestern Ethiopia. Despite raids over the next two years, local rulers west of Lega Naqamte, such as 'Abd ar-Rahman Khojali of Qabesh, stopped paying tribute to Omdurman (the Mahdist capital) and ignored summons to present themselves there.[2] Further, Ras Gobana's master (then) king Menelik II of Shewa was able to continue to extending his influence into the area south of the Abay River, which followed Menelik and Gobena's defeat of the Gojjame army six years earlier in the Battle of Embabo.

References
  1. Alessandro Triulzi, "Trade, Islam, and the Mahdia in Northwestern Wallagga, Ethiopia", Journal of African History, 16 (1975), pp. 64-68
  2. Triulzi, "Trade, Islam", pp. 69f


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