Giovanni Cerrina Feroni

At the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish war, Cerrina Feroni obtained the command of the Italian naval forces stationed in the Red Sea.

Also in these operations the commander Cerrina proved skilled as he managed to convince the sheikhs of Yemen to rebel against the Ottoman Empire, obtaining new allies and always putting in greater difficulty the enemy, until May 6, 1912 when the Italian fleet won the Turkish one in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay (today Al Qunfudhah).

At the end of this clash, the Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti personally requested the captain Cerrina asking him to perform on behalf of the government some secret diplomacy missions in 1913.

Subsequently Cerrina Feroni passed to the "Ministry of the Colonies", where he remained for several years, first as governor of Eritrea and then going to the same office in Somalia (from 1916 to 1920).

When he returned to the civil life, he accepted the role of President of the "Istituto per l'Africa italiana" in Rome.