# Italian forces use mustard gas in Ethiopia on Mussolini’s authorization, against the 1925 Geneva Protocol

Date: 1935

## The fact

From late 1935 through 1936 Italian aircraft dropped sulphur mustard and other chemical agents on Ethiopian combatants and on civilian corridors. [Mussolini](/people/benito-mussolini)’s government authorized chemical use after De Bono’s caution; Badoglio executed it. Italy had ratified the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

It is one event.

## Context

This is not a rumour of ‘colonial excess’. It is documented chemical warfare against a state that lacked equivalent air power. ICRC’s Protocol text is the legal heading Italy broke.

Benito Mussolini’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

ICRC’s 1925 Protocol page, League/UN Geneva archives, and Britannica independently sit on the war; historical reconstructions of gas orders are in the same file, not in a movie.

Official or archival record: ICRC — 1925 Geneva Protocol on asphyxiating gases (https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/misc/57jnqn.htm; International Committee of the Red Cross).

## Significance

Authorizing mustard gas against a poorer army and civilians is a humanitarian crime heading of high confidence.

Do not write ‘non-conventional means’. Write mustard gas.

Authorizing mustard gas against a poorer army and civilians is a humanitarian crime heading of high confidence.

## What is established and what is not

Established: chemical agents were used in the Ethiopian war under the Italian command Mussolini headed. Not established: a unique litre-by-litre Factrail inventory.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Benito Mussolini.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

## People

- Benito Mussolini: https://factrail.ai/people/benito-mussolini

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/misc/57jnqn.htm
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Italo-Ethiopian-War-1935-1936

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/mu-ethiopia-chemical-warfare