Those two adjectives at least tell me something, that there's a racial element or a difference of religion. "Ethnic" means it could involve racism, a difference

Those two adjectives at least tell me something, that there's a racial element or a difference of religion. "Ethnic" means it could involve racism, a difference in religion, a cultural disagreement or a couple other things. It may rule out that it's political tension or something like sports hooliganism, but even those can also be part of "ethnic tensions."