Wolaita Sodo

Sister cities

• Sheger City
• Bracciano

History

In the early 1930s, Sodo was described as the only locality in Wolaita 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. 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 and 1968. In 1984, a refugee camp was established in the town for the victims of that year's famine. Prior to the Ethiopian 2005 General Elections, Amnesty International reports that some members of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces political party were amongst 200 people reportedly detained under vagrancy laws in Sodo on 22 February 2005. Amnesty International included this incident as one of a series of government intimidation of opposition party activists.

Most-observed species

• Variable Sunbird

  Cinnyris venustus (Shaw, 1799) · Aves
  36
• Brown-rumped Seedeater

  Crithagra tristriata (Rüppell, 1840) · Aves
  33
• Tacazze Sunbird

  Nectarinia tacazze (Stanley, 1814) · Aves
  31
• Dusky-brown Flycatcher

  Muscicapa adusta (F.Boie, 1828) · Aves
  22
• Willow Warbler

  Phylloscopus trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  20
• Abyssinian Slaty Flycatcher

  Dioptrornis chocolatinus (Rüppell, 1840) · Aves
  19
• Bronze mannikin

  Lonchura cucullata (Swainson, 1837) · Aves
  19
• Abyssinian Thrush

  Turdus abyssinicus Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  19

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2016-01-24
  2 km N of Hawassa, Ethiopia
• M 4.4 — 2011-10-17
  Ethiopia
• M 5 — 2011-03-19
  13 km ENE of Wendo, Ethiopia
• M 5.1 — 2010-12-19
  3 km SSW of Hosa’ina, Ethiopia
• M 4.7 — 2005-07-07
  32 km NNE of Arba Minch, Ethiopia