page_title: Siege of Saïo
section_title: East African Campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Saïo / Prelude / East African Campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: Force Publique Commander-in-Chief Auguste-Éduard Gilliaert crossing the Baro River near Gambela during the East African Campaign
context_page_description: The Siege of Saïo or Battle 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.
  In the first months of 1941, British and Belgian colonial forces attacked Italian East Africa from the colony of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. By the end of March, they had seized the town of Gambela and begun containing retreating Italian forces, which were massing on a plateau in the mountain town of Saïo under the command of General Carlo De Simone and later General Pietro Gazzera. The British forces withdrew the following month and the Belgians advanced down the road to Saïo. The Italians repelled them and they were forced to hold their positions along a nearby brook. Almost no fighting took place in May as heavy rain bogged down the Belgians and turned their supply line from Sudan into mud, creating a food shortage.
context_section_description: Following the declaration of war against France and Britain by Italy on 10 June 1940, the East African Campaign began as military forces of the British Empire engaged the Italian East African Armed Forces Command (Comando Forze Armate dell'Africa Orientale) in Italian East Africa. After a series of actions in 1940, British colonial forces from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan invaded the territory and eventually a salient formed around the Baro River. In March 1941, the Italian forces began to withdraw from the salient under increasing pressure. On 8 March the first battalion of the Belgo-Congolese expeditionary force marched from Kurmuk towards the Italian-held town of Asosa.
  The expeditionary force attacked three days later in conjunction with troops of the King's African Rifles (KAR), forcing the garrison to retreat to Gidami. Next, the Belgians and Congolese began attacking the town of Gambela directly from the west while two companies of the 2/6 KAR under Captain J. W. E. Mackenzie were sent to outflank it and cut off its link with the Italian headquarters at Saïo under the command of General Carlo De Simone. The Belgians were concerned that the Italians might attempt an offensive over the weakly defended Sudanese border; by taking Gambela they could force Gazzera's forces in western Ethiopia into a defensive position. On 22 March, the KAR companies attacked but withdrew to the south when a planned Belgian assault failed to materialise. The Italians were nevertheless surprised by the flanking manoeuvre and retreated to Saïo.
caption: Belgo-Congolese forces crossing the Baro River near Gambela
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