Sodo

:"This article is about the Ethiopian town. For the language, see Soddo language. For the neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, see Sodo, Seattle, Washington."

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Sodo
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pushpin_label_position = right
pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ethiopia
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = Ethiopia
subdivision_type1 = Region
subdivision_name1 = Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples'
subdivision_type2 = Zone
subdivision_name2 = Wolaita
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population_total = 65,737
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timezone = EAT
utc_offset = +3
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latd=6 |latm=54 |latNS=N
longd=37 |longm=45 |longEW=E
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elevation_m = 1600
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footnotes = Sodo or Wolaita Sodo is a town in south-central Ethiopia. Located the Wolaita Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, Sodo has a latitude and longitude of coord|6|54|N|37|45|E with an elevation between 1600 and 2100 meters above sea level. It is the largest settlement in the woreda of Sodo Zuria.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this town has an estimated total population of 65,737 of whom 34,069 were males and 31,668 were females. [ [http://www.statsethiopia.org/text_files/2005_national_statistics.htm CSA 2005 National Statistics] , Table B.3] The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 36,287 of whom 18,863 were males and 17,424 were females.

Sodo is served by an airport (ICAO code HASD, IATA SXU). It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Sodo-Hosaena.

History

In the early 1930s, Sodo was the only locality in Welamo district deserving to be called a town. It had a Saturday market, a telephone line to the capital and a weekly mail courier. Italian ground troops captured Sodo on 27 January 1937; it was there that two Italian generals with their divisions – Liberati with his 25th Division, and Bacarri with his 101st Division – surrendered on 22 May 1941, after a minimum of resistance. The British also captured the remnants of the 21st Division, who had escaped around the north end of Lake Abijatta. The loot included more than 4,000 officers and men, 6 medium tanks, 4 light tanks, 100 machine guns, ammunition and supplies. [http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/A/ORTSOB.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia"] (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 16 November 2007)]

By 1958 Sodo was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as First Class Township. A branch of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia was established between 1965-68. The administrator of Sodo woreda and one-time student activist, Melaku Gebre Egziahber, was arrested in 1975 for encouraging peasants and the urban poor to rise up against "exploiters" in the town. [Marina and David Ottaway, "Ethiopia: Empire in Revolution" (New York: Africana Publishing, 1978), p. 125] In 1984, a refugee camp was established in the town for the victims of that year's famine.

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