The Birifor of Cote d’Ivoire

The Birifor of Cote d’Ivoire, numbering approximately 8,900 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Birifor people of northern Cote d'Ivoire closely related to the Lobi, sharing a Miiwo-Birifor language split across a population of roughly 200,000 spanning Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. They mostly adhere to Animism and Southern Birifor is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Cote d’Ivoire
People Cluster: Gur
Primary Language(s): Southern Birifor (biv)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 8,900
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013050
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Birifor of Cote d’Ivoire

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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

85%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Southern Birifor
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Birifor, Southern Speakers

Media Resources in Southern Birifor:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Southern Birifor:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2006 Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc.✓✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Southern Birifor bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Birifor 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 Birifor:
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 Birifor of Cote d’Ivoire

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
readIsaiah 42:8

Pray that lost people will turn from worthless idols to worship the one true God, recognizing that He alone is worthy of all glory and praise.

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.

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
read1 Peter 2:25

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will proclaim the good news and the lost will recognize their need for the Shepherd and turn to Jesus Christ in faith.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
read1 Corinthians 9:20

Pray that believers from similar cultures will be compelled by Christ's love to reach people who don't know the gospel, and that those people will receive the good news with joy.

Birifor, Southern Across Countries (ROP3 - 101479) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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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