Ethiopia repatriates 2,494 nationals from Saudi Arabia, ministry says
Ethiopia has brought home 2,494 citizens who had been living in difficult conditions in Saudi Arabia, according to the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs.
In short
- Ethiopia has brought home 2,494 citizens who had been living in difficult conditions in Saudi Arabia, according to the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs.
Ethiopia has repatriated 2,494 nationals from Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs said on August 24, 2026.
The ministry said those brought home had been living in difficult circumstances. It presented the operation as part of a wider policy focused on protecting Ethiopian citizens abroad and placing their welfare at the centre of the country’s diplomatic engagement.
The announcement did not provide further details in the material available to AddisMizan about the travellers’ individual circumstances, the locations from which they returned or what assistance they would receive after arrival. Those elements should be confirmed separately before any more specific claims are made.
The repatriation is the latest publicly announced effort by Ethiopian authorities to assist nationals facing hardship outside the country. The immediate development is the return of the 2,494 citizens; broader claims about the scale, causes or outcome of the programme require additional official data.
AddisMizan is treating the ministry’s account, carried by Fana Broadcasting Corporate on August 24, as an official-source report. No independent source with additional operational detail was available in the current source-item queue.
