Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the arid and semi-arid regions of Ethiopia. In the past two decades, millions of people are affected by drought throughout the country. To assess and monitor droughts, accurate rainfall record is crucial at different spatial and temporal scales. However, rain gauges are sparsely distributed across Ethiopia. To overcome this limitation, considering the high spatial resolution and longer period record of the Climate Hazard group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) v2 satellite rainfall data, the same has been used as an input to Effective drought index (EDI) for drought monitoring in Ethiopia . The study has been carried out across the three different rainfall regimes of Ethiopia for the period from 1981 to 2016. The obtained results show that the historical drought years across rainfall regime of Ethiopia are well captured by EDI with CHIRPS rainfall product as input variable. Thus, highlighting the efficacy of EDI index and CHIRPS rainfall product for operational drought monitoring in Ethiopia. © 2017 ACRS. All rights reserved.