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The Sara Mbai of Chad

The Sara Mbai of Chad, numbering approximately 271,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Sara-Bagirmi-speaking Nilo-Saharan ethnic group indigenous to southern Chad and Central African Republic. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Mbay is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Chad
People Cluster: Sara-Bagirmi
Primary Language(s): Mbay (myb)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 271,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG011449
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Pray for the Sara Mbai of Chad

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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

75%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Mbay
Language Family: Central Sudanic

85%
%
Mbay Speakers

Media Resources in Mbay:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Mbay:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2004 Bible Society of Chad✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Mbay bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Sara Mbai 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.

Next steps for the Sara Mbai:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Sara Mbai of Chad

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self- made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
readColossians 2:23

Pray for those without Christ, that they will see the emptiness of human traditions and turn to the truth and grace found in Jesus.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them
readMatthew 4:24

Pray that the truth about the Lord will spread throughout the land so that many will have an opportunity to receive the good news and put their faith in Him.

Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
readActs 2:47

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, God will use their faith and their church community as a testimony to the watching world and grow His Church.

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
readMatthew 7:28-29

Pray that God will remind believers that they have His authority as they share His truth with the lost, and pray He will draw crowds of people to this message and plant it deeply in their hearts.

Sara Mbai Across Countries (ROP3 - 108710) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group ID ▼NameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Sara MbaiPG014097Sara MbaiNigeria16,500No Longer UnreachedMbayNeo-Pentecostalism
Sara MbaiPG012930Sara MbaiCentral African Republic16,000No Longer UnreachedMbayNeo-Pentecostalism
Sara MbaiPG012776Sara MbaiCameroon6,700No Longer UnreachedMbayNeo-Pentecostalism
Sara MbaiPG011449Sara MbaiChad271,000No Longer UnreachedMbayEthnoreligion

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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