Siege of Saïo | |||||||||
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Part of the East African Campaign of World War II | |||||||||
Belgian forces with captured Italian artillery following the battle |
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Air support: South Africa |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Auguste Gilliaert Leopold Dronkers-Martens Edmond Van der Meersch J. W. E. Mackenzie |
Pietro Gazzera (POW) Carlo De Simone (POW) |
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Strength | |||||||||
Belgium: ~3,000 troops 2,000 porters United Kingdom: 1 battalion Ethiopian Empire: Unknown number of resistance fighters South Africa: 3 aircraft |
7,000–8,000 troops Unknown number of aircraft |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Belgium: 462 dead |
~1,200 dead 6,454 captured |
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The Siege of Saïo took place during the East African Campaign of World War II. Belgo-Congolese troops, British Commonwealth forces and local resistance fighters besieged the fort at the market town of Saïo in south-western Ethiopia in 1941. The siege lasted for several months, culminating in an Allied attack on the Italian garrison thereby forcing it to surrender.