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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Timbuktu Tamasheq of Mali

The Timbuktu Tamasheq of Mali, numbering approximately 639,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic subgroup of the Tuareg Berber, indigenous to the Kidal Region of northeastern Mali. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Tamasheq is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Timbuktu Tuareg

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Arab Peoples
Country: Mali
People Cluster: Tuareg
Primary Language(s): Tamasheq (taq)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 639,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013572
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Pray for the Timbuktu Tamasheq of Mali

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: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Tamasheq
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Tamasheq Speakers

Media Resources in Tamasheq:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Tamasheq:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2003 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc.✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Tamasheq bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Timbuktu Tamasheq 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 Timbuktu Tamasheq:
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 Timbuktu Tamasheq of Mali

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
readRomans 11:22

Pray that God will transform those who persist in unbelief and, in His everlasting kindness, graft them into His family.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
readActs 17:26-27

Pray that the lost will seek God and find Him, for He is not far from each one of us. Pray that they will have opportunities to access the gospel, learn God's purpose for their lives, and believe in Him.

Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
readPsalm 6:8

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, God will remind them that He is near and will help them place their hope in Him when others wish to do them harm.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
readRevelation 7:9-10

Pray that the promise in Revelation 7:9-10 will encourage believers from among them or from nearby people groups to share the gospel with people who have never learned it.

Tuareg, Kidal Across Countries (ROP3 - 110232) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
Timbuktu Malian TamasheqPG047044Timbuktu Malian TamasheqNiger16,000Unengaged and UnreachedTawallammat TamajaqFolk Islam
TuaregPG012454TuaregBurkina Faso202,000Engaged yet UnreachedTamasheqFolk Islam
Timbuktu TamasheqPG013572Timbuktu TamasheqMali639,000Engaged yet UnreachedTamasheqFolk Islam
TamasheqPG013590TamasheqMauritania152,000Engaged yet UnreachedTamasheqFolk Islam

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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