A visual guide to Ethiopia’s ethnic groups and conflict areas

EXPLAINEREthiopia has faced near-continuous conflict since 2020, with fighting in Tigray, Oromia and Amhara.Published On 29 May 2026Ethiopia will head to the polls on June 1 for its first nationwide elections since the formal end of the Tigray-war" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="136461" data-entity-type="event">Tigray war, a devastating two-year conflict from 2020 to 2022 that concluded with a peace agreement between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray-peoples-liberation-front" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="136463" data-entity-type="organization">Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).With a population of about 135 million, Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous country and the 10th most populous in the world.More than 50.5 million voters have registered to participate in the vote, which is held every five years, with all 547 parliamentary seats up for grabs. Since 2018, the country has been run by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose Prosperity Party holds 457 out of the country’s 547 seats.The Ethiopia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="136464" data-entity-type="organization">National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) is likely to announce the official results on June 11.Ethiopia at a glanceEthiopia is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa, covering an area of 1,104,300sq km (426,400sq miles) and bordered by Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti.The country has sustained notable economic growth over the past two decades, with the IMF projecting a 9.2 percent expansion in 2026, the highest on the continent. Yet persistent challenges remain, including high inflation (11.7 percent as of April 2026), foreign exchange shortages, and the costly burden of post-war reconstruction.The country has five official languages – Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya. Roughly two-thirds of the population are Christian and one-third Muslim, with small communities of Ethiopian Jews and adherents of traditional faiths.Ethiopia’s ethnic groupsThe East African country is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, with more than 80 distinct groups.