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The Afar of Eritrea

The Afar of Eritrea, numbering approximately 359,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Cushitic ethnic group indigenous to the Horn of Africa, living primarily in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. They speak the Afar language, an East Cushitic language within the Afroasiatic family, and are predominantly Sunni Muslim. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Afar is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Afar

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Horn of Africa Peoples
Country: Eritrea
People Cluster: Afar-Saho
Primary Language(s): Afar (aar)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 359,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG011517
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Pray for the Afar of Eritrea

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Afar
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Afar Speakers

Media Resources in Afar:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Afar:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Afar bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Afar:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Afar of Eritrea

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
readPsalm 51:17

Pray that those who want to achieve salvation through their works will be unsettled in their pursuit and that, with a broken spirit and contrite heart, they will trust in Christ.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
read2 Peter 3:9

Pray that the lost will not perish but come to repentance and that God's patience and long-suffering will lead them to salvation.

The LORD bless you and keep you.
readNumbers 6:24

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be blessed with God's grace, trusting that He will never abandon them.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
readRomans 9:16

Ask God to raise up people who will trust in His sovereignty as they share the gospel, knowing that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

Afar Across Countries (ROP3 - 102419) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▲Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
AfarPG047244AfarUnited States325Unengaged and UnreachedAfarSunni Islam
AfarPG047406AfarCanada2,600Unengaged and UnreachedAfarSunni Islam
AfarPG011517AfarEritrea359,000Unengaged and UnreachedAfarSunni Islam
AfarPG011480AfarDjibouti365,000Engaged yet UnreachedAfarSunni Islam
AfarPG011536AfarEthiopia2,280,000Engaged yet UnreachedAfarSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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