Christ To The World Ministries

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Africa

Geography

Area: 1,106,000 sq km

Fertile, mountain plateau surrounded by the drought-prone lowlands and deserts of the Red Sea coast; borders on Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Landlocked since the secession of Eritrea.

Population: 84,975,606    Annual Growth: 2.62%

Capital: Addis Ababa

Urbanites: 17.6%

HDI Rank: 171 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 116 (17% unreached)

Official language: Amharic; majority of the population are able to speak it; English widely taught. Regional languages are very important    Languages: 88

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Answer to Prayer

Challenge for Prayer

The less evangelized. ECFE and DAWN cooperated on studies that established the need for further mission research, and identified 30 unevangelized peoples accounting for 25 million people, mostly away from the centre of the nation. There are Ethiopians working among all of these:

a) The largely Muslim Somali, Harari and Afar regions in the east. Many thousands of Somalis have crossed into Ethiopia, fleeing the violence at home. Ethiopian ethnic Somalis number 4.5 million and are one of Africa’s least reached peoples. The number of Christians is growing, but ministry to these people comes at great risk and personal cost to those sharing.

b) Many sections of Oromia, especially in the east and south, are strongly Muslim and increasingly assertive within the federal framework. A number of agencies, foreign and national, reach out despite some hostility toward Christianity. Intertribal Oromi warfare has disrupted much work but gives opportunity to show compassion.

c) The many peoples of the southwest, bordering on Sudan, are isolated and smaller in numbers; some are nomadic. Nearly all are now engaged by evangelists and missionaries. Pray for healthy churches to be planted through pioneering work among the Aari, Bench, Bodi (5,000), Bumi (40,000), Hamer-Banna, Daasenach, Dime (15,000), Ebore (5,000), Karo (5,000), Me’en, Mali (39,000), Mursi (5,000), Tarra (15,000), Tsamai (20,000) and Wata (5,000).