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The Lingala of Central African Republic

The Lingala of Central African Republic, numbering approximately 19,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Lingala-speaking community in the Central African Republic, largely linked to Congolese migration, that preserves the language and cultural traditions of the Congo River region. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Lingala is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Lingala

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Central African Republic
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Congo
Primary Language(s): Lingala (lin)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 19,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012888
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Pray for the Lingala of Central African Republic

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

—
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Lingala
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Lingala Speakers

Media Resources in Lingala:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Lingala:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1982 Boyokant Ya Sika✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Lingala bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Lingala are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Lingala:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Lingala of Central African Republic

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
readGenesis 3:15

Pray that those without Christ will hear the words of Genesis 1-3 in their own language, and desire to know their Creator and His provision of salvation.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
readLuke 5:27-28

Prat that God will prepare many hearts to meet Him when He says, “Follow Me!” and that they will respond in faith, leaving everything behind to follow Him.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
readPsalm 51:10

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will quickly repent when they sin and walk with clean hearts and right spirits as they grow in their relationship with the Lord.

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 those God sends to cross cultures will patiently endure hardships as they share the gospel, knowing that the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise.

Lingala Across Countries (ROP3 - 105785) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

9 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▲Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
LingalaPG047445LingalaCanada3,500No Longer UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
CongolesePG000063CongoleseBelgium15,500No Longer UnreachedLingalaRoman Catholicism
LingalaPG012888LingalaCentral African Republic19,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
CongolesePG015104CongoleseUganda28,000No Longer UnreachedLingalaNeo-Pentecostalism
CongolesePG047246CongoleseUnited States38,000No Longer UnreachedLingalaNeo-Pentecostalism
LingalaPG012081LingalaSouth Sudan49,500Unengaged and UnreachedLingalaSunni Islam
LingalaPG012981LingalaCongo189,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
LingalaPG015177LingalaAngola200,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaEthnoreligion
LingalaPG050322LingalaCongo, Democratic Republic of the4,310,000No Longer UnreachedLingalaRoman Catholicism

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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