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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Lingala of South Sudan

The Lingala of South Sudan, numbering approximately 49,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as a Lingala-speaking community in South Sudan, largely linked to Congolese migration, that preserves the language and cultural traditions of the Congo River region They are an Diaspora people, with Lingala as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Bantu, Central-Congo people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam 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: South Sudan
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Congo
Primary Language(s): Lingala (lin)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 49,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012081

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Pray for the Lingala of South Sudan

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

—
%
Sunni Islam 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

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 Lingala:
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 Lingala of South Sudan

The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
readProverbs 4:19

Pray that lost people will accept salvation through Christ, turn from destruction, and experience joy in the way of righteousness.

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.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
read1 Corinthians 9:19

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have hearts that want to serve the lost around them so that many might come to faith in Jesus.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sends me, even so I am sending you."
readJohn 20:21

Ask God to raise up and send out believers cross-culturally who will go out in His authority and be sustained by His peace as they share the gospel with the lost.

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

Strategic Progress Index
All

9 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDName ▼CountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
LingalaPG012081LingalaSouth Sudan49,000Unengaged and UnreachedLingalaSunni Islam
LingalaPG012888LingalaCentral African Republic19,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
LingalaPG012981LingalaCongo189,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
LingalaPG015177LingalaAngola200,000Engaged yet UnreachedLingalaEthnoreligion
LingalaPG047445LingalaCanada3,500No Longer UnreachedLingalaProtestantism
LingalaPG050322LingalaCongo, Democratic Republic of the4,300,000No Longer UnreachedLingalaRoman Catholicism
CongolesePG000063CongoleseBelgium15,500No Longer UnreachedLingalaRoman Catholicism
CongolesePG015104CongoleseUganda27,500No Longer UnreachedLingalaNeo-Pentecostalism
CongolesePG047246CongoleseUnited States38,000No Longer UnreachedLingalaNeo-Pentecostalism

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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