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Abyssinia was landlocked in advance of the Italian invasion that culminated in the latter's defeat in Adua. What route did Russian people and shipments take to get into the country.

I would have to assume the Russians did not transit men and materiel via Italian Somalia or Eritrea---unless the Italian administrations there had the most extreme corruption problems.

To the west was the Mahdi state, which I think was pretty unfriendly to Abyssinia. But maybe they let people and supplies pass for a price. Non-followers of the Mahdi would have to be pretty gutsy to transit his territory.

The British controlled Kenya, Uganda and Somaliland. Perhaps some traffic went through there, but I think that Britain leaned to a pro-Italian stance at the time, even if she did not provide practical help to Italy.

That leaves French held Djibouti. Why would France risk the hostility of its neighbor in Europe to allow help for an African Kingdom? Did France and Russia both think Italy was politically weak and easy to defeat? Were they trying to bring about the fall of the Italian government? And what did Russia have against Italy, a country she shared no border or territorial disputes with?
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