[3][4] Initially acts of resistance began in 1962 and 1963 as a defensive reaction by peasants to land expropriation, bureaucratic corruption, and exorbitant taxation imposed by the government.

However, further clashes and consequent government reprisals eventually transformed the peasants into a decentralized insurgency that would go on to wage a six-year long guerrilla war, ending in 1970.

[3][11] The best land in the region eventually became owned by Amharas and higher officials in the province were disproportionately Christian, greatly incensing the Muslim Oromo/Somali population.

Taxation by the imperial government was also widely viewed as exorbitant and unjust by the population of Bale further inflaming rebellious sentiments in the province.

[7] Professor of African Studies, John Markakis would write of the conditions preceding the revolt:The legal exactions of the state and the landlords were compounded by a host of illegal impositions levied by the ruling class on the peasantry, usually associated with matters related to land.

Land measurement, classification, registration, inheritance, litigation and so on were matters that could be concluded only through the payment of enforced bribes to a series of officials, and were subject to the risk of fraud in the process.

Northern officials serving in the south hoped to amass a small fortune during their tour of duty, and to acquire land through grant, purchase or other means.

[8] Incidents of violence had first begun in 1962,[5] but the trigger for the Bale insurgency was a new head tax introduced in early 1963, leading to the first shots fired in March of that year in the El Kere Awrajja (sub-province).

[16] Because the insurgency consisted mostly of inexperienced farmers and peasants, it possessed no real centralized politico-military command structure even though General Gutu was widely viewed as the leader.

Numerous clusters of rebels around Bale fought under other insurgent leaders such as Adam Jillo, Ali Butta and Haji Kilta.

[18] In one of the landmark battles at Malka Anna near Ganale River in 1963, Oromo insurgents claimed to have brought down two military helicopters using a non-automatic rifle called Dhombir.

[citation needed] Serious revolt broke out during a fairly minor incident in the Wabe district of Bale in 1964, after the governor of the region had unsuccessfully attempted to collect taxes with a large police force.

This act of defiance to the central government inspired rebellions to pop up elsewhere in the district culminating in the seizure of the town of Belitu by rebel Oromo/Somali forces.

[10] Fierce ground assaults and airstrikes by government forces in high and lowland Bale during the opening months of 1967 resulted in significant casualties amongst the civilian population.