The Nyangatom are some of the most feared warriors in the Omo Valley, locked in bloody feuds with the tribes that surround them.
The Nyangatom live in the dry, semi-desert lands of south-west Ethiopia and southern Sudan, where their lives revolve around their herds of zebu cattle and raising crops including sorghum, maize and tobacco. They face serious competition for access to scarce water and grazing resources. Ongoing droughts have made the situation worse.
Despite these problems, the Nyangatom have grown in recent years. One estimate suggests the tribe’s numbers have almost tripled over the last three decades to about 14,000, partly due to the activities of Swedish missionaries who provided health care and relief supplies until they left in 2002.
Today the Nyangatom face new issues. Their lands lie within the Omo National Park, created by the Ethiopian government in 1966 and the Nyangatom fear that their rights to grazing and water will be restricted as they have often been in the past.