Sodo ( am, ሶዶ) or Wolaita Sodo ( am, ወላይታ ሶዶ) or ( Wolaytatto: ''Wolayta Sodo Ambbaa'') is a city in south-central

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The administrative center of the

Wolaita Zone Wolayita or Wolaita is an administrative Zones of Ethiopia, zone in Ethiopia. It is named for the Welayta people, whose homeland is in the zone. Wolayita is bordered on the south by Gamo Gofa Zone, Gamo Gofa, on the west by the Omo River (Ethio ...

. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It was part of the former Sodo woreda which included

Sodo Zuria Sodo Zuria ( Amharic "Greater Sodo Area") is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Wolayita Zone, Sodo Zuria is bordered on the southwest by Offa, on the west by Kindo Koysha, on t ...

which completely surrounds it. Sodo is a center of major health and education institutions in Ethiopia. Soddo Christian Hospital has one of the 10 surgical training centers in Africa. The hospital provides a full range of medical, and surgical services, including

Orthopedic Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

and General, Maternity, and

Pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

. Wolaita Sodo University Teaching Referral Hospital is also located in this town and it serves around two million people. The total number of beds in the hospital was 200; out of which 60 beds were in

Obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

and

Gynecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined are ...

department. Sodo's amenities include digital and mobile telephone access, postal service, 24-hour electrical service, two banks, and a hospital. Sodo is also the seat of the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Apostolic Vicariate of Sodo-Hosaena.

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 Lake Abijatta is an alkaline lake in Ethiopia. It lies in the Main Ethiopian Rift valley south of Addis Ababa, in the Abijatta-Shalla National Park. Overview According to the ''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68'', the lake is 17 kil ...

. The loot included more than 4,000 officers and men, 6 medium tanks, 4 light tanks, 100 machine guns, ammunition and supplies.
/ref> By 1958 Sodo was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as First Class Township. A branch of the

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is the largest commercial bank in Ethiopia. As of June 2021, it had about 1.1 trillion birr in assets and held approximately 67% of deposits and about 53% of all bank loans in the country. The bank has arou ...

was established between 1965-68. The administrator of Sodo Zuria 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. In 1984, a refugee camp was established in the town for the victims of that year's famine. On 6 November 1999,

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

arrested two teachers in Sodo for objecting to the use of a new language in school textbooks. Student demonstrations against the arrests led to widespread week-long protests and riots. Special police units were brought in to suppress the demonstrations, and killed as many as 10 people, injured hundreds and arrested up to 1,000 others. A former

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

camp outside Sodo was used as a temporary detention facility for hundreds of demonstrators. Prior to the Ethiopian 2005 General Elections,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

reports that some members of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces political party were amongst 200 people reportedly detained under

vagrancy laws Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

in Sodo on 22 February 2005. Amnesty International included this incident as one of a series of government intimidation of opposition party activists.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the CSA, this town has a total population of 76,050, of whom 40,140 are men and 35,910 women. The majority of the inhabitants were

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, with 54.60% of the population reporting that belief, 38.43% practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

, 4.76% were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, and 1.28% were

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 36,287 of whom 18,863 were men and 17,424 were women.

Education

Established in 2007,

Wolaita Sodo University Wolaita Sodo University () is a public university in Sodo, Wolaita Sodo, South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region, Ethiopia. It is approximately 339 kilometers (210.65 mile) far from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in southwest direction. It is one of the secon ...

(WSU) is a non-profit public higher education institution located in Sodo. WSU offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees in several areas of study. The university has campuses in different areas, including Dawuro Tarcha Campus. The city has numerous secondary schools of which the prominent ones are Wolaita Sodo Secondary & preparatory school and Wolita Liqa School.

Transportation

Sodo is served by an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

. A road connecting Sodo with Chida, whose construction had started in 1994, was completed by early 1999. Featuring an

Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units. A ...

across the

Omo river The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile, Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Keny ...

and five other bridges, this road cost 255 million Birr, and reduced the distance between the Regional capital at

Awassa Hawassa ( am, አዋሳ; ʾäwasa, also spelled Awassa or Awasa) known historically as Adare is a city in Ethiopia, on the shores of Lake Awasa, Lake Awassa in the Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia, Great Rift Valley. It is south of Addis Ababa via ...

and

Mizan Teferi Mizan Tefere (also called simply Mizan) is the largest town in South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region and one of four Capital cities of the region. Mizan is also the administrative centre, of the Bench Sheko Zone in the South West Ethiopia Peoples ...

to ."Horn of Africa, Monthly Review, December '98-January '99"
, UN-OCHA Archive (accessed 23 February 2009) According to the SNNPR's Bureau of Finance and Economic Development,

Sport

Wolaitta Dicha S.C. is an Ethiopian football club based in Sodo. The club now is playing premier league which is first level division. The club won its first domestic cup in 2017, and qualified for the

2018 CAF Confederation Cup The 2018 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2018 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under the cur ...

, in which the club beat

Zamalek SC Zamalek Sporting Club ( ar, نادي الزمالك للألعاب الرياضية), commonly referred to as Zamalek, is an Egyptian sports club based in Giza. It is one of the most successful football clubs in Africa and the Middle East, an ...

and passed to the quarter-final. Sodo Kenema S.C. is an Ethiopian football club based in Sodo. The club now is playing super league which is second level division.

women's volleyball club is also based in this city. The club was established in 2020 and it was founded by Debrework Tesfaye and his colleagues teaching in

department of Sport Science. The club won the Ethiopian Volleyball Federation knockout tournament in the same year and automatically qualified for CAVB women's club championship in 2021. The club also finished the league as a runner up in the same season. The club then won Ethiopian Women's Volleyball premier League in 2022.

Climate

Located in the tropics at high altitude, Sodo possesses a well-moderated

Subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(

Koppen Koppen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Dan Koppen (born 1979), American football offensive lineman * Erwin Koppen (1929–1990), German literary scholar * Luise Koppen (1855–1922), German author * Wladimir Köppen (1846� ...

''Cwb''), with a pronounced pattern of wet summers and dry winters. Despite being located in the Northern Hemisphere, Sodo is actually cooler in the "summer" than the "winter" due to much higher rainfall in the high-sun season, a phenomenon common to Sodo's region.

Notable people

Samuel Urkato Samuel Urkato Kurke (; born 1 September 1974) is an Ethiopian politician and Council of Ministers (Ethiopia), cabinet minister since October 2018. He was president of Wolaita Sodo University before becoming Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (Ethi ...

, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Ethiopia. *

Hailemariam Desalegn Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe ( amh, ኃይለማሪያም ደሳለኝ ቦሼ; born 19 July 1965) is an Ethiopian politician who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and Minister ...

, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia who served from August 2012 until April 2018. He previously occupied the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Minister of Social Affairs and Government Chief- Whip Minister. He was also Governor of the Southern Regional State for six years. *

Gildo kassa Gildo (died 398) was a Roman Empire, Roman Berber people, Berber general in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. He revolted against Honorius (emperor), Honorius and the Western Roman Empire (Gildonic War, Gildonic war), but was defeated and po ...

, is Ethiopian record producer, songwriter, and singer. * Kamuzu kassa, is Ethiopian music composer and songwriter.

References

{{Districts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region Sodo Wolayita Populated places in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region Cities and towns in Wolayita Zone