Objective  To understand the mental health status and its influential factors of staff of Chinese enterprises in Ethiopia.

  Methods  This study selected employees of Chinese enterprises still in Ethiopia to conduct the mental health questionnaire survey from June 27 to 28, 2020, and multiple linear stepwise regression model is performed to analyze the influential factors of the mental health.

  Results  Among 671 employees, 38.75% had mental health problems. The anxiety and depression of the employees in the last 2 weeks was relatively prominent. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the epidemic had an impact on the plan of returning home (OR=3.293, 95%CI: 1.897–5.714), employees worried about being in Africa and unable to take care of their family members in China (OR=2.329, 95%CI: 1.198–4.528), and the company did not take any measures (OR=4.697, 95%CI: 1.080–20.435) were risk factors of mental health. Employees had no physical symptoms in the past month (OR=0.305, 95%CI: 0.171–0.543), worked normally (OR=0.517, 95%CI: 0.322–0.831), the company guaranteed the necessities of life supply (OR=0.609, 95%CI: 0.371–1.000) and conducted COVID-19 knowledge promotion (OR=0.335, 95%CI: 0.183–0.614) were the protective factors of mental health.

  Conclusion  The mental health status of employees of Chinese enterprises in Ethiopia is poor, and their mental health is affected by various factors. We should attach importance to their mental health and take various mental health interventions to reduce their anxiety and depression and other negative emotions.