The Dervish War was a conflict in the Horn of Africa, between the Dervish State, and the imperial powers of Abyssinia, Britain and Italy, initially from 1900 to 1904, which was followed by a peace treaty-protectorate period with the Italians from 1905, other diplomatic measures in the following years, and a resumption of conflict with the colonial powers from 1913 to 1920.
The opening battle of the rebellion saw the Dervish attack the Ethiopian garrison at Jigjiga in March 1900 and take control of parts of the eastern Ogaden region. The Dervish then declared war on the British colonial administration in Somaliland. The Ethiopian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy and some Somali clans also fought against the Dervish. The British launched five military expeditions, mainly in the Nugaal Valley, between 1900 and 1920 against the Dervish, while the Dervishes often attacked the British or Italian controlled parts of Somaliland. The conflict ravaged the region's economy. It has been estimated that around one-third of the population of Somaliland died during the Dervish rebellion.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire and Germany supported the Dervish movement; with their defeat, the Dervishes were left with no allies. The British thus launched a massive combined arms offensive on the Dervish forts. The Dervish retreated to their capital at Taleh, which was aerially bombed and then captured by the British, leading to the fall of the Dervish movement and bringing the conflict to an end.
Background
British Somaliland
Although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Yemen and the sahil, including Zeila, in 1841, Haj Ali Shermerki, a successful and ambitious Somali merchant, purchased from them executive rights over Zeila. Shermerki's governorship had an instant effect on the city, as he manoeuvred to monopolize as much of the regional trade as possible, with his sights set as far as Harar and the Ogaden. Zeila and later Somaliland came under the control of Muhammad Ali, Khedive of Egypt, between 1874 and 1884.
In 1874–75, the Khedivate of Egypt obtained a firman from the Ottomans by which they secured claims over Somaliland. At the same time, the Egyptians received British recognition of their nominal jurisdiction as far east as Cape Guardafui.
In the late 19th century, the United Kingdom signed agreements with clans Gadabuursi, Issa, Habr Awal, Garhajis, Arap, Habr Je'lo, Warsangeli, and the Isaaq Sultanate, establishing a protectorate. Many of these clans had signed the protection treaties with the British in response to Ethiopian Emperor Menelik's Invasions. The agreements dictated the protection of Somali rights and the maintenance of independence.
When the Egyptian garrison in Harar was eventually evacuated in 1885, Zeila became caught up in the competition between the Tadjoura-based French and the British for control of the strategic Gulf of Aden littoral. By the end of 1885, the two powers were on the brink of armed confrontation, but opted instead to negotiate. On 1 February 1888 they signed a convention defining the border between French Somaliland and British Somaliland.
Italian Somaliland
The Majeerteen Sultanate within the northeastern part of the Somali territories was established in the mid-18th century and rose to prominence the following century, under the reign of the resourceful boqor (king of kings) Osman Mahamuud.
In late December 1888, Yusuf Ali Kenadid, the founder and first ruler of the Sultanate of Hobyo, requested Italian protection, and a treaty to that effect was signed in February 1889, making Hobyo an Italian protectorate. In April, Yusuf's uncle and rival, Boqor Osman, requested a protectorate from the Italians and was granted it. Both Boqor Osman and Sultan Kenadid had entered into the protectorate treaties to advance their own expansionist goals, with Sultan Kenadid looking to use Italy's support in his ongoing power struggle with Boqor Osman over the Majeerteen Sultanate, as well as in a separate conflict with the Sultan of Zanzibar over an area to the north of Warsheikh. In signing the agreements, the rulers also hoped to exploit the rival objectives of the European imperial powers so as to more effectively assure the continued independence of their territories. The terms of each treaty specified that Italy was to steer clear of any interference in the sultanates' respective administrations.
In return for Italian arms and an annual subsidy, the Sultans conceded to a minimum of oversight and economic concessions. The Italians also agreed to dispatch a few ambassadors to promote both the sultanates' and their own interests. The new protectorates were thereafter managed by Vincenzo Filonardi through a chartered company. An Anglo-Italian border protocol was later signed on 5 May 1894, followed by an agreement in 1906 between Cavalier Pestalozza and General Swaine acknowledging that Buraan fell under the Majeerteen Sultanate's administration.
Ogaden region
During the pre-colonial era, the Ogaden region was neither under Ethiopian rule, nor Terra nullius, as it was occupied by organized Somali communities. In 1887, Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II conquered the city of Harar during his efforts to expand the empire and in 1891, announced a programme of ambitious colonialism to the European powers. This marked the start of a tentative yet violent invasion into the Ogaden region. In the first phase of Ethiopian penetration into the region, Menelik dispatched his troops from occupied Harar on frequent raids that terrorized the region.
Menelik's expansion into Somali inhabited territory coincided with the European colonial advances in the Horn of Africa, during which the Ethiopian Empire imported a significant amount of arms from European powers. The large scale importation of European arms completely upset the balance of power between the Somalis and the Ethiopian Empire, as the colonial powers blocked Somalis from receiving firearms. In 1897 in order to appease Menelik's expansionist policy Britain ceded almost half of the British Somaliland protectorate to Ethiopia in the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1897. Ethiopian authorities have since then based their claims to the Ogaden upon the treaty and the exchange of letters which followed it.
As Emperor Menelik II continued his campaign of indiscriminate raiding and attacks against the Somalis of the Ogaden region between 1890 and 1899, Somali clans residing in the plains of Jigjiga were in particular targeted. The escalating frequency and violence of the raids resulted in Somalis consolidating behind the Dervish Movement. As the Ethiopian Empire began expanding into Somali territories at the start of the 1890s, the town of Jigjiga came under intermittent military occupation until 1900. At the start of the year, Abyssinian troops occupied the town with the construction of a fort in the outskirts.
Campaigns
In 1895 Muḥammad ibn 'Abdallāh Hassan began his preaching in Berbera, the administrative centre of British Somaliland, lashing out not only against some of the traditional Somali customs, which showed little respect for religious rites, but also against the penetration of Christian missionaries in the region, and therefore against the colonial policy of the British. The preaching obtained little results in Berbera, where the majority of the population was faithful to the Qadariyah brotherhood, and in 1897 Abdullah Hassan retired to Kirrit, in the interior regions, to his maternal clan of the Dhulbahante: having founded his own brotherhood, he began his preaching work again, aiming at a strong anti-Western charge and announcing a jihad against the foreign colonisers, British and Ethiopians in particular. In an attempt to overcome the age-old tribal and clan divisions of the Somalis, the mullah ("master") sought to found a community united by the common Islamic faith, defining his followers not with the names of their respective tribes but with the all-encompassing term of daraawiish, or the "dervishes ".
On 12 April 1899, the British Consul General in Berbera, James Hayes Sadler, sent a first report on Abdullah Hassan's activities to the Foreign Office in London, estimating that he had already gathered around 3,000 followers; in the following August, the Mullah gathered around 5,000 armed men, 200 of whom were equipped with modern rifles, in the town of Burao, then carrying out a first raid against the town of Sheikh, less than 100 kilometres from Berbera, whose inhabitants had not responded to his appeals. On 1 September 1899 Abdullah Hassan sent an ultimatum to the British authorities in Berbera, but a few days later his movement began to show signs of weakening due to the never-ending tribal divisions: after having put to death the sultan of Dhulbahante Ali Farah, guilty of not having sided with him, the Mullah was abandoned by many followers belonging to his maternal clan, and he soon had to leave Somaliland, taking refuge in the village of Boholte, near his paternal tribe of the Ogaden. Here the Mullah resumed his preaching, immediately gathering many followers among the Ogaden, who were directly threatened by the aggressive Ethiopian expansion towards the east; Abdullah Hassan also obtained help in arms and ammunition from the sultan of Migiurtinia Osman Mahamuud, who intended to use the dervishes against his rival of Hobyo Yusuf Ali Kenadid with whom he disputed several territories in the valley of the Nugaal.
In March 1900, dervishes began attacking merchant caravans from Harar into Ogaden territory, provoking a reaction from the Ethiopians: a column of 1,500 men under Gerazmatch Bante carried out punitive raids into the Ogaden, but was later attacked at Jijiga by nearly 6,000 dervishes led by the Mullah at the Battle of Jigjiga. Both sides claimed victory following the battle; the improved availability of modern rifles enabled the Ethiopians to inflicted heavy losses on the attackers. Although suffering heavy casualties during the attack, the dervishes accomplished their objective of returning all the livestock confiscated by the Abyssinians. This raid allowed Abdullah Hassan to gather even more followers among the Ogaden, and he then began to push his raids even beyond the frontier into British Somaliland where he raided the non-Dervish Qadariyah clans for their camels and arms.
In the spring of 1901, the British and Ethiopians decided to mount a joint expedition against the rebels: 1,500 Somali mercenaries, under British officers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Eric John Eagles Swayne, moved from the north against the village of Jahelli, where the Mullah was quartered, while from Harar 15,000 Ethiopians headed east; mostly mounted on horseback, the dervishes managed to elude the slow-moving Ethiopian army and, although they were three times engaged in combat by the British, avoided defeat. After three months of campaigning, the Mullah led his warriors safely across the border into Mijiurtinia, forcing the British to call off their pursuit.
Although Migiurtinia had to suffer in April 1901 a joint punitive expedition by the Italians and Hobyo for the support given to the dervishes, Sultan Osman Mahamuud continued to provide support to the Somali rebels both in terms of supplies of rifles and ammunition, and by providing safe havens where the Mullah could reorganise his forces. In October 1901 Abdullah Hassan brought his warriors, now numbering 12,000 men and 1,000 rifles, back to southern Somaliland, beginning a series of raids against the possessions of the Dhulbahante clan, who were hostile to him; At the same time, the Mullah kept his agreement with Osman Mahamuud and also led a series of attacks against Hoybo, capturing the important town of Galkayo in the summer of 1902 and pillaging the lands of the vassals of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid. The renewed activity of the dervishes forced the British to organize a new campaign, and Colonel Swayne gathered a contingent of 2,300 men between Somali recruits and African regulars of the King's African Rifles, also equipped with cannons and machine guns; After some initial successes, on 6 October 1902 Swayne's force was ambushed by Dervishes while crossing the bush near the village of Erigo: the Somali recruits collapsed, causing the entire contingent to retreat in disarray towards Buuhoodle and the abandonment of a Maxim machine gun in the hands of the rebels.
February–June 1903
The British became convinced of their need of Italian assistance. In 1903, the Italian Foreign Ministry permitted the British to land forces at Hobyo (Obbia). An Italian naval commander off Hobyo feared "that the expedition will end in a fiasco; the Mad Mullah will become a myth for the British, who will never come across him, and a serious worry for ... our sphere of influence."
The relationship between Hobyo and Italy soured when Sultan Kenadid refused the Italians' proposal to allow British troops to disembark in his Sultanate so that they might then pursue their battle against Diiriye Guure's Dervish forces. Viewed as too much of a threat by the Italians, Kenadid was exiled first to the British-controlled Aden Protectorate, and then to Italian Eritrea, as was his son Ali Yusuf, the heir apparent to his throne.
In May, the British Foreign Office realised the error, and had Kenadid's son appointed regent, just in time to forestall an attack in Mudug by the Sultan's army.