4 - Bale at War

Summary

The chapter presents new empirical data on the insurgency, detailing its initial triggering points, its beginnings, and different trajectories. It focuses on the two fronts in Wabe and Dello districts, exploring the main battles and offenses, and discusses how the insurgency movements succeeded in securing territorial control and challenging the Ethiopian state. The chapter also sheds light on the Ethiopian government’s reaction to the insurgency and provides new detailed insights to the many military attempts to crush the movement. It explores the human suffering and the impact the fighting had on the local landscapes, before analyzing how the Ethiopian military managed to defeat the insurgents. It is important to underscore that the chapter should in no way be read as a complete narrative about the insurgency, and that several blank spots need to be filled, The chapter underscores that even though the Bale insurgency was, from a military point of view, unsuccessful and achieved very little politically, it contributes with much-needed insights to broader historical and contemporary dynamics in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, particularly with regard to the interconnected roles of religion and ethnicity in times of conflict.