Rashaida people
The Rashaida (Arabic: رشايدة), also known as Bani Rasheed, are an ethnic group inhabiting the coastal plain of the Red Sea stretching from the Sudanese city of Port Sudan to the Eritrean city of Massawa. They are the descendants of Arab tribes people from Hejaz, who fled the Arabian peninsula in 1846 as the Saudis rose to power. They are mostly nomadic and constitute 187,500 people in Eritrea and 168,000 people in Sudan, mainly in the eastern part around Kassala.
Rashaida boys with their father near Kassala in Eastern Sudan | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 170,000-360,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Red Sea coastal plains | |
| Eritrea | 187,500 |
| Sudan | 168,000 |
| Languages | |
| Hejazi Arabic, Sudanese Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Arabs | |
Across Eritrea and Sudan, the Rashaida keep their traditional dress, culture, customs, camel breeds and practice of Sunni Islam. In Eritrea, Rashaida people are commonly confused with Adeni Arabs, a small group of about 18,000 Arabs from Aden, who tend to cohabit similar regions as the Rashaida. Although Adeni Arabs originally hail from Yemen and tend to live in a more geographically concentrated area of Eritrea, mainly in the port city of Massawa, Rashaida people tend to live along the Red Sea Coast from Massawa Eritrea to Port Sudan Sudan and to the Sinai in places as far north as Egypt.
The Rashaida have been involved in human trafficking and later the refugee kidnappings in Sinai.