"Suri" is the self-name of a little-known group of agro-pastoralists/cultivators straddling the borderland of southwestern Ethiopia and Sudan. They show some historical and cultural affinities with the Nilotic peoples in neighboring Sudan; they are also related to the Ethiopian Mursi and especially the Me'en, other "tribal" groups in this area. The Suri are composed of three subgroups; the Chai and Tirma. and the Bale. Official census figures on the Ethiopian Suri (Tirma and Chai) for 1984 indicate a total of 8,194 people. Abbink estimated in 1992 that there were about 37,000 (8,000 Bale, 13,000 Tirma, 16,000 Chai).