Gode to swell to a reported size of 100,000 inhabitants. This led John Graham to grimly remark in the Addis Observer, "The main claims to fame of Gode are not inspiring - they are famine and war." On 26 July 1994, the then-current mayor, Muktar Aden, Gedden was murdered. For several weeks afterward, it was not clear who was responsible, as no individual or group had taken responsibility or had been accused. Demographics According to the 1997 national census, the city's total population was 45,755, of whom 26,081 were males and 19,674 were females. The ethnic breakdown was 99%. Gode is primarily inhabited by the Somalis 97.3%, and other ethnic groups make up 2.3% of the population. Based on the 1997 National census, 11,044 inhabitants, or 24.1% of the population, were in school, of whom 2,766 were males and 1,563 were female. On the other hand, 35,478 people, or 77.5% of the overall population, were illiterate, of whom 17,273 were male and 18,205 female. Based on 2010 figures from the Central Statistical Agency, Gode has an estimated total population of 950,782, of whom 488,235 were males and 442,089 were females. Gode is the largest town in the Gode woreda. Climate Gode has a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh) with uniformly very hot weather and scanty, extremely variable rainfall. The average annual temperature in Gode is , and virtually every afternoon exceeds , while mornings seldom fall below . There are two short wet seasons in April-May and October-November which provide of precipitation – about ninety percent of the mean annual rainfall of . These wet seasons are caused by brief passages of the Intertropical Convergence Zone over the region; however, they are extremely erratic even for an arid region. The wettest calendar year between 1967 and 1999 was 1967 with of precipitation and the driest 1980 with of precipitation. Notes Populated places in the Somali Region Ethiopia Cities and towns in Ethiopia