Eritrea's Snit Habteab ranks No. 1 in Africa's Miss World Round 1 vote, reaches Head-to-Head Top 5
Snit Habteab Tewoldemedhin, a neuroscientist and disability-rights advocate, topped Africa's Round 1 People's Choice vote with over 374,000 votes and advanced to the continent's Head-to-Head Challenge top five — the furthest Eritrea has ever gone at Miss World, in its first year competing.
By Eyob Hadgu · 25 August 2026
Snit Habteab Tewoldemedhin, Eritrea's Miss World 2026 delegate, ranked No. 1 for Eritrea in the Africa group. Courtesy Miss World Organization
Snit Habteab Tewoldemedhin has taken Eritrea's Miss World debut further than any Eritrean pageant campaign before it, advancing to the African continent's Head-to-Head Challenge top five at Miss World 2026 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.
Habteab, 27, is Eritrea's first-ever representative at Miss World, competing as the pageant's 185th participating country in its 75th edition. She was born and raised in Asmara, moved to the United States in 2019, and holds a neuroscience degree from George Mason University in Virginia. Before the pageant circuit, she worked as a Montessori preschool teacher and speaks five languages.
Leading the vote before the head-to-head
In the competition's People's Choice vote, Habteab led the Africa Round 1 standings with 374,061 votes as of the August 23 verification, a result that put her at the front of the continental field. She went on to reach the Africa Head-to-Head Challenge top five, alongside contestants from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. South Africa's Romanda Hombir, a 27-year-old audiologist, ultimately won that continental head-to-head round.
Habteab was also named among the 23 global finalists in the Miss World 2026 Talent Challenge, a separate strand of the competition that England's Grace Richardson went on to win.
A platform built on disability inclusion
Habteab's campaign is built around "Designing for Diversity," a nonprofit she founded to address stigma around intellectual and developmental disabilities in Africa and to provide educational materials supporting literacy and basic maths skills. The cause is described as personal: she has a younger sister with a learning disability, and her mother died of breast cancer — a loss that also feeds a breast cancer awareness strand of her advocacy.
This isn't Habteab's first pageant milestone for Eritrea. She was the first Eritrean crowned Miss Africa USA in 2023, and in 2024 became the first woman to represent Eritrea at Miss Universe, where she was recognized as a Voice for Change Silver Finalist.
What's next
Habteab is due to appear at the World Designer Award runway on August 28, ahead of the Miss World 2026 final on September 5 at 2 April Square in Nha Trang.
This report draws on reporting from TRT Afrika, Mesob Journal, Amplify Africa and the Miss World organization's own site.
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