Massaoua is a town of Érythrée. Massaoua is an old colonial possession Italian in Érythrée, the second in the Horn of Africa.

History

Italian colonization

The Italian occupation of Massaoua was done peacefully, the February 5th 1885, by a task force of 1500 Bersaglieri under the command of colonel Tancredi Saletta and under the benevolent glance of the Great Britain which had even requested it.
The English intended to make use of the Italians to decrease the operating range of the French in Africa and to repress the revolt with the close Sudan, fomented by the freedom fighters in favor of Muhammad Ahmad which claimed to be the Mahdi.

The protests of Cairo and Constantinople did not have an echo and was repatriated with the end of the year.

The February 12th was sent another quota of soldiers (42 officers, 920 soldiers) and the third forwarding took place the February 24th. In three months, the Italian troops occupied all the coast between Massaoua and Assab.