Which is the ethnic group speaking Semitic language and living in central Eritrea and northern Ethiopia?

Tigrayans are an ethnic group native to the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea. They speak Tigrinya as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Ethiopian Semitic subgroup of the Afroasiatic family. In Ethiopia, Tigrinya is the third most spoken language.

The majority of Tigrayans trace their origin to early Semitic-speaking peoples whose presence in the region dates back to at least 2000 BC, based on linguistic evidence.

Tigrayans are mainly Christian and members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (approximately 96%), with a small minority of Muslims, Catholics and Protestants.

The decline of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia was caused by the 1958 famine in Tigray, when over 100,000 people died.