"Romolo Gessi Pasha: Early Counter-Insurgency Lessons" Topic

…. from an Italian Soldier of Fortune's Campaign in Central Africa

"Successful counterinsurgencies typically combine the deployment of superior weapons, competent logistics, advanced tactics and the ability to win the "hearts and minds" of the non-insurgent population. What is striking about the success of Italian soldier-of-fortune Romolo Gessi Pasha (1831-1881) against insurgent Arab traders and slavers in the south Sudan was his ability to overcome a much larger group of fighters who possessed similar weapons, had greater experience in both irregular and conventional warfare, held fortified positions, were at home in the terrain and had wide public support in the most influential parts of Sudanese society, including the military. Ultimately, Gessi Pasha would go down in history as the relentless weapon used by Sudanese governor-general Charles "Chinese" Gordon to smite the Arab slavers of Bahr al-Ghazal and destroy their expanding influence.

Gessi is believed to have attended military schools in Germany and Austria before finding work as an interpreter for British forces in the Crimean War, where he would first meet Captain Charles Gordon of the Royal Engineers, later governor of Sudan's Equatoria Province (1874-76) and governor general of the Sudan (1877-79)…"
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