On the whole people rallied to the war effort, angered by the invasion of Ethiopia. Enlistment to the armed forces was supposed to be voluntary. However, a good deal of pressure was also employed through local chiefs and conscription boards. Also, scare tactics were employed on many of the Africans to fight. Using forced labor camps as an alternative many decided to allow themselves to be drafted. With access to Asian markets cut off, African commodities assumed great importance during the war. So in Liberia rubber production increased. The Belgian Congo was relied on for key minerals. Britain tried to increase tin mining production in Nigeria to offset losses in the Far East. Workers were forced to work in the mines in appalling conditions and production rose only slightly. After the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, the French exiles formed an interim government in French Morocco.
Italy was the first nation to start the war on North Africa. The Italians had 250,000 men in Libya and Cyrenaica and further 200,000 in Abyssinia, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. They menaced communication routes both in the Mediterranean and in the Red Sea. They also had almost quadruple superiority in aircraft. The Italians declared war on the British and French on June 10th, 1940. The British attacked literally on the very day after the declaration of war, when Italian commanders on the Egyptian frontier had not any specific orders. On June 11th, the day after the declaration of war, small units detached from the 7th Armored Division struck against Italian outposts, crushed them and captured many prisoners. Days later, the panic spread in a deep Italian rear. The Italians gained some seeming successes only in secondary sectors. They seized Kassala in Sudan, a town on the border with Italian-occupied Abyssinia. They attacked deep into Kenya's forests and they, also, seized all of the territory of British Somaliland.
