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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Northwest Gbaya of Central African Republic

The Northwest Gbaya of Central African Republic, numbering approximately 354,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a regional branch of the Gbaya, Central Africa's largest ethnic family, who fled Usman dan Fodio's jihad from northern Nigeria in the early nineteenth century under war chief Gazargamu, assimilating peoples they encountered along the way. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Northwest Gbaya is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Gbaya, Northwest

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Central African Republic
People Cluster: Adamawa-Ubangi
Primary Language(s): Northwest Gbaya (gya)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 354,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012833
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Pray for the Northwest Gbaya of Central African Republic

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: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Northwest Gbaya
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Gbaya, Northwest Speakers

Media Resources in Northwest Gbaya:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Northwest Gbaya:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1995 Bible Society of Cameroon✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Northwest Gbaya bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Northwest Gbaya 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 Northwest Gbaya:
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 Northwest Gbaya of Central African Republic

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
readRevelation 3:20

Pray that those who have not opened their hearts to Jesus will hear His knock and invite Him in as their Savior and Lord.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
readRomans 5:11

Pray for the gospel to advance and for more people to be brought into God's family through the reconciliation Jesus offers them.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
readDeuteronomy 6:6-7

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will hide God's Word in their hearts, let it shape their conversations and daily lives, and pass on their faith to the next generation.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
read2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Pray that as people hear and believe the gospel, they will be faithful as they walk through trials and will have an opportunity to be a witness to others in this people group of the goodness of God.

Baya, Gbaya Across Countries (ROP3 - 101166) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
GbayaPG012601GbayaCameroon447,000No Longer UnreachedNorthwest GbayaProtestantism
Northwest GbayaPG012833Northwest GbayaCentral African Republic354,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorthwest GbayaEthnoreligion
BayaPG011978BayaSudan19,000Unengaged and UnreachedNorthwest GbayaProtestantism
GbayaPG012969GbayaCongo6,300Unengaged and UnreachedNorthwest GbayaEthnoreligion

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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