Danan fell to the Italians in January, 1936 as part of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. As part of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of General Rodolfo Graziani (19 February 1937), it was used as a prison camp for hundreds of people arrested as part of the reprisals. While Ethiopian sources state of 6500 internees held there 3175 died, contemporary Italian reports claim that much fewer were ill and only a handful died. Alberto Sbacchi concludes from these conflicting reports that while "the occurrence of illness and death is difficult to determine, but we can assume that many suffered and died. Graziani's order to supply them with only enough food to live strongly suggests it, as do the conditions under which the Ethiopians were confined. Poor facilities, including latrines, the humid climate, malaria, stomach infections, and venereal disease took many lives, especially among those compelled to work on the irrigation canal or on the banana and sugar-cane plantation."