Aleta Wendo is a town in southern Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in a fertile and forested area near Lake Abaya

Lake Abaya

Lake Abaya is a lake in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia. It was named Lake Margherita by the Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego, the first European commonly thought to visit the lake, to honor the wife of king Umberto I of Italy, Queen Margherita...

, not far from the sources of the Ganale Dorya

Ganale Dorya River

The Ganale Dorya River is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Dawa flows south and east to join with the Dawa at the border with Somalia to become the Jubba. Tributaries include the Welmel, Weyib , Dumale, Doya, Hawas and the Hambala...

 and Dawa River

Dawa River

The Dawa River is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Dawa flows south and east to join with the Ganale Dorya at the border with Somalia to become the Jubba. The river forms part of the Ethiopia–Kenya border and part of the Ethiopia–Somalia...

s in the Sidama Zone

Sidama Zone

Sidama is a Zone in the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region . It is named for the Sidama people, whose homeland is located in this zone...

 of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of 6°36′N 38°25′E with an elevation of 2037 meters above sea level. It is administrative center of Aleta Wendo

Aleta Wendo (woreda)

Aleta Wendo is one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Sidama Zone, Aleta Wendo is bordered on the south by the Oromia Region, on the west and north by Dale, on the east by Hula, and on the southeast by Dara...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

This town has both telephone and postal service, and is supplied with electricity by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation from the national grid.

History

Dejazmach Balcha Safo

Balcha Safo

Balcha Safo , also known by his title as Dejazmach Balcha, was an accomplished Ethiopian general, who served in both the First and Second Italo-Ethiopian Wars. He came from a non-aristocratic background...

, Governor of Sidamo

Sidamo

Sidamo may refer to the following:*Sidamo Province, Ethiopia*The Sidamo language*The Sidamo or Sidama people*Ethiopian Sidamo, a single origin variety of coffee from Ethiopia...

, originally constructed his ketema or fortified camp in Wendo, but he later moved it to Hagere Selam. While passing through the area February 1909, Dr. Drake Brockman notes that the governor of Western Sidamo, Dejazmach Tessema Nadew made this town (which he calls "Alata") his headquarters. American naturalists arrived at the Wendo village 29 December 1926, and camping outside the village for a while. Grazmach Kebede Dihala Mikael, the village potentate, implored them to camp near his house, explaining that there were plenty of shifta

Shifta

Shifta is term used in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia for rebel, outlaw, or bandit. The word is derived from shúfto. Historically, shifta served as local militia in the lawless rural mountainous regions on the Horn of Africa...

s or outlaws in the area.

Wendo was occupied by the Italian Laghi Division on 30 November 1936. It was retaken by the 1st Gold Coast Regiment

Ghana Regiment

The Ghana Regiment is an infantry regiment that forms the main fighting element of the Ghanaian Army.The regiment was formed in 1879 as the Gold Coast Constabulary, from personnel of the Hausa Constabulary of Southern Nigeria, to perform internal security and police duties in the British colony of...

 on 22 May 1941, without a single shot fired. The Allied forces accepted the surrender of a Brigadier General and some 3,000 prisoners.

By 1958 Wendo was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as First Class Township. Telephone service reached the town within the next 10 years.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

in 2005, Aleta Wendo has an estimated total population of 20,513, of whom 10,006 were males and 10,507 were females. According to the 1994 national census, the town had a population of 11,300.