The Rwandans of Burundi

The Rwandans of Burundi, numbering approximately 236,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a community in Burundi descended from refugees and migrants from Rwanda who have retained a distinct Rwandan identity and heritage. They mostly adhere to Roman Catholicism and Kinyarwanda is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Burundi
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Lakes
Primary Language(s): Kinyarwanda (kin)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 236,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG014470

Pray for the Rwandans of Burundi

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: Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

64%
%
Roman Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Kinyarwanda
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Kinyarwanda Speakers

Media Resources in Kinyarwanda:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

3 films

Bible Resources in Kinyarwanda:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Ikinyarwanda Cy'iki Gihe (Common) Interconfessional✓

1 entry

Or check out the Kinyarwanda bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Rwandans 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 Rwandans:
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 Rwandans of Burundi

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
readJohn 11:25

Pray for the many who have never heard about or understood the importance of what Jesus did for them, asking God to make a way for them to hear that the perfect Son of Man suffered, died, and rose again so that they might be saved.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
readIsaiah 1:18

Pray that God will make a way for the gospel to reach many through means they can understand and access, that they will receive the good news with joy, and that they will experience complete forgiveness and cleansing from their sin that Jesus offers through His sacrifice.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
readHebrews 10:26

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will live with reverence for God and not deliberately keep sinning after they receive the knowledge of the truth.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
readActs 17:29

Pray that God will send out laborers to tell people of the one true God and, as the good news is shared, bring about repentance and belief as they turn from idols and follow Jesus.

Rwandan Across Countries (ROP3 - 108463) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

6 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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