Imperial Bodyguard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ethiopian Imperial Bodyguard served the dual purposes of providing security for the Emperor of Ethiopia and an elite infantry division. It was not, however, part of the Ethiopian regular army.
The organization of the Imperial Bodyguard under Emperor Haile Selassie dates to 1930, when he invited a Belgian military mission to train and modernize the Ethiopian military. The unit was organized in three battalions of infantry and one heavy machine-gun company, and was commanded by Ethiopian graduates of Saint Cyr, the French military academy, at the time of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.[1] As a unit, the Imperial Bodyguard only participated in the Battle of Maychew (31 March 1936), but afterwards many of its members joined the various groups of the Ethiopian resistence.
Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie to Ethiopia, the Imperial Bodyguard was reconstituted, and a Swedish military mission aided in its training. Men for the Kagnew Battalion, which fought in the Korean War, were drawn from the Imperial Bodyguard.[2]
In 1961 it numbered nine battalions, in 1969 some 7,000 men. The 1st Division was based at Addis Ababa. "It remained the elite force of the empire," notes historian Bahru Zewde, "until discredited in the wake of the attempted coup of 1960." That unsuccessful coup had been planned by its commander Brigadier-General Mengistu Neway, and his brother Germane Neway.[3]
In 1974 the Commander was Major-General Tafessa Lemma. The Bodyguard was disbanded after the Derg consolidated their hold on Ethiopia.
