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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Barma of Chad

The Barma of Chad, numbering approximately 142,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Chad and can also be known as Bagirmi. They are an Indigenous people, in the Sara-Bagirmi people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Islam - Folk. They primarily speak Bagirmi.

Barma in Chad photo
Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Copyrighted ©️ 2025 Pierre Laborde - Shutterstock Used with permission

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-saharan Africa Peoples
Country: Chad
People Cluster: Sara-Bagirmi
Primary Language(s): Bagirmi (bmi)
Primary Religion(s): Islam - Folk
Population: 142,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG011315
View on Joshua Project

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Islam - Folk
Religious Affiliation: Islam

%
Islam - Folk Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bagirmi
Language Family: Nilo-Saharan

%
Bagirmi Speakers

Media Resources in Bagirmi:

Films:

No entries found for: Bagirmi(bmi). Help build some!

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Bagirmi:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Bagirmi bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Next steps for the Barma

The Barma are Unengaged and Unreached, 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.

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

Next steps for the Barma

The Barma 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.

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

Next steps for the Barma

The Barma are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Barma of Chad

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
readPsalm 96:9

Pray that many who do not yet know Jesus will come to know Him and worship Him in the splendor of His holiness.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
readPsalm 51:9

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have confidence that God has turned His face from their sins and forgiven their iniquities.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
read2 Corinthians 12:28

Ask God to raise up believers who will faithfully proclaim the good news and equip others to do the same.

Barma (ROP3 - 101074) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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