At 96.55% of the local population, the region is predominantly inhabited by people from the Semitic-speaking Tigray people. Most other residents hail from other Afro-Asiatic communities, including the Amhara, Irob, Afar, Agaw and Oromo. There are also a minority of Nilo-Saharan-speaking Kunama Nilotes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigray_Region. About 11% of Saho people are in Tigray region of Ethiopia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saho_people)
Amhara warlords repeatedly struggled for power of the realm with Tigrayan warlords. Though many branches of the Imperial dynasty were from the Amharic speaking area, a considerable amount was from Tigray. The Tigrayans made a short return to the throne in the person of Yohannes IV, whose death in 1889 allowed the capital to go back to the Amharic speaking province of Shewa (http://ethiopiatribe.com/)



