At the end of 1940, the XIth Battalion of the "Force Publique" was placed at the disposal of the British forces in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The 3rd Brigade of the "Force Publique", together with the XIth battalion (5,700 men), took part in the campaign in Abyssinia in Italian East Africa, arriving from the Congo via the Sudan. The troops took Asosa and Gambela with little resistance, and shelled Italian forces at Saïo on 8 June 1941. Their retreat cut off, the Italian troops surrendered to General Auguste-Édouard Gilliaert on 7 July 1941, and included nine generals, among them Generals Pietro Gazzera and Count Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi, 370 officers, and 2,574 noncoms and 1,533 native soldiers. About 2,000 additional native irregulars were sent home. The "Force Publique" lost about 500 men during the East Africa Campaign, among them 4 Belgians.