Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed an Ethiopian and one of its own citizens, both of them for murder, bringing to 58 the number of convicts put to death this year.

Khatar Doli Koji had been found guilty of beating another Ethiopian to death with a metal rod, and stealing money and a phone from him, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Authorities carried out the sentence against him in Riyadh.

In a separate case, Mosaid al-Shahrani had been tried and found guilty of killing Hamad al-Shahrani with an automatic weapon after an argument, the ministry said.

It did not give further details of the connection between them but said the accused was put to death in the southwestern city of Abha.

Most executions in Saudi Arabia are done by beheading with a sword.

The kingdom on January 2 executed 47 people in a single day for "terrorism".

According to an AFP tally, Shahrani and Koji are among 11 other locals and foreigners put to death this year.

In 2015 the kingdom executed 153 people, mostly for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP tally.

Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.

However, the tally was far behind that for China and Iran.

The kingdom practises a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.