Omo River (Ethiopia) in the context of "Lake Turkana"

The Omo remains are a collection of hominin bones discovered between 1967 and 1974 at the Omo Kibish sites near the Omo River, in Omo National Park in south-western Ethiopia. The bones were recovered by a scientific team from the Kenya National Museums directed by Richard Leakey and others. The remains from Kamoya's Hominid Site (KHS) were called Omo I and those from Paul I. Abell's Hominid Site (PHS) were called Omo II.

Gurage (/ɡʊəˈrɑːɡeɪ/, Gurage: ጉራጌ) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. They inhabit the Gurage Zone and East Gurage Zone, a fertile, semi-mountainous region in Central Ethiopia Regional State, about 125 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa, bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River, a tributary of the Omo River, to the southwest, and Hora-Dambal in the east.

According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census, the Gurage can also be found in substantial numbers in Addis Ababa, Oromia Region, Harari Region and Dire Dawa.

The Omo Kibish Formation or simply Kibish Formation is a geological formation in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. It is named after the nearby Omo River and is subdivided into four members known as Members I-IV. The members are numbered in the order in which they were deposited and date between 196 ka ~ 13-4 ka. Omo Kibish and the neighboring formations (Shungura and Usno) have produced a rich paleoanthropological record with many hominin (e.g. Paranthropus boisei) and stone tool (e.g. Oldowan tools) finds. The Kibish formation, in particular, is most notable for Richard Leakey's work there in 1967 during which he and his team found one of the oldest remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Known as Omo Kibish 1 (Omo I), the fossil was dated to 196 ± 5 ka old and is among two other Omo remains (Omo II and Omo III) that were found in Member I. The Omo fossils were more recently (in 2022) re-dated to approximately 233 ± 22 ka old. In the early 2000s a research boom enriched the knowledge base about the Kibish Formation. Study of the faunal remains (large mammal and fish faunas) and stone tools provided insight into the archeological associations of Homo sapiens and thereby their behaviors and the complex environmental contexts in which they lived and evolved.

Omo National Park is a national park in Ethiopia founded in 1980. Located in the South Ethiopia Regional State on the west bank of the Omo River, the park covers approximately 4,068 square kilometers, about 870 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa; across the Omo is the Mago National Park and the Tama Wildlife Reserve. Although an airstrip was recently built near the park headquarters on the Mui River, this park is not easily reachable; the Lonely Planet guide Ethiopia and Eritrea describes Omo National Park as "Ethiopia's most remote park."

The Mursi (or Mun as they refer to themselves) are a Surmic ethnic group in Ethiopia. They principally reside in the Debub Omo Zone of the South Ethiopia Regional State, close to the border with South Sudan. According to the 2007 national census, there are 11,500 Mursi, 848 of whom live in urban areas; of the total number, 92.25% live in the South Ethiopia Regional State.

Surrounded by mountains between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago, the home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of the country. Their neighbors include the Aari, the Banna, the Mekan, the Karo, the Kwegu, the Nyangatom and the Suri. They are grouped together with the Me'en and Kwegu by the Ethiopian government under the name Surma.

The Gibe River (also Great Gibe River) is by far the largest tributary of the Omo River in southwestern Ethiopia and flows generally south-southeast. The confluence of the Gibe River 7°20′N 37°22′E / 7.333°N 37.367°E / 7.333; 37.367 with the Gojeb River forms the Omo River. The whole drainage basin is sometimes referred to as the Omo-Gibe River Basin with the Gibe and the Omo draining the (respectively) upper and lower reaches.

In common with most of Ethiopia's rivers, the Gibe is not navigable.