Hailu Kebede

Hailu Kebede (; c.1893/94 – 22 September 1937) was Wagshum and governor of Wag and Lasta in the 1920s. He then became a leader of the resistance Arbegnoch movement against the Fascist Italians during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia.

Biography The son of Wagshum Kebede Tafari, he was descended from Ras Aligaz of Yejju on his mother's side and was married to Shewanesh Abraya, daughter of Dejazmach Abraha Araya, who was first cousin of Emperor Yohannes IV. Hailu Kebede lived at the court of Ras Tafari Makonnen (who later became Emperor Haile Selassie) and was elected to the Ethiopian Parliament in 1931 as a member of the Senate.

In late 1934, as the Italian conflict loomed, Hailu was sent to Wag to support his father and help organize the war effort. In March 1935, after receiving orders to prepare for mobilization, he traveled with a group of 300 armed fighters to Korem, where a telegraph line connected to Addis Ababa. Before the official mobilization order against the Italians was given in November 1935, Kebede's forces from Wag had already begun advancing northward as vanguard troops to garrison Ambalage. In October 1935, following the defection of Haile Selassie Gugsa, Hailu received orders from the Emperor to march towards Mekele but was forced to retreat due to the approaching Italian forces. In early November 1935, two Italian planes bombed the forces of Wag near Ambalage, marking the first serious airstrike by the Italian Air Force.

After the Battle of Maychew on 31 March 1936, Hailu and his forces retreated to the countryside to continue their resistance. He then organized one of the earliest Ethiopian patriot resistance movements, establishing his base in the valley of the Tekeze in Dehana, Wag. The Italians, having lost control of the rural areas of Wag, considered him the greatest threat to their rule in the region.