[2][5] Ras Mengesha then hurriedly retreated further south, which at least offered him the opportunity to lure the Italians chasing him further away from their supply bases and deeper into enemy territory.

[4] On October 9, two battalions of Italian colonial troops under General Giuseppe Arimondi's and Major Giovanni Ameglio's command, a total of six companies, met Mengesha's rearguard at Debra Ailà (near Antalò).

For Ras Mengesha the defeat at Debra Ailà meant another setback,[6] but the Italians had not succeeded in destroying or at least decisively weakening the Tigrayan army.

He was attacked and defeated by Menelik's and Ras Mengesha's troops on the Amba Alagi barely two months after the victory at Debra Ailà, Toselli fell in battle.

After the Italians were defeated at Amba Alagi in December 1895 and expelled from Mek'ele in January 1896, Arimondi was finally killed in the decisive Battle of Adua in early March 1896.