The Sirtican Bedouins of Libya

The Sirtican Bedouins of Libya, numbering approximately 38,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an Arabic-speaking Bedouin tribe of the Sirte region in northern Libya. Historically adapted to the arid coastal-steppe frontier, they combined pastoral livelihoods, tribal organization, and seasonal mobility within the wider North African Bedouin culture. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Libyan Arabic is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Sirtican Bedouin

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Arab Peoples
Country: Libya
People Cluster: Bedouin, Saharan
Primary Language(s): Libyan Arabic (ayl)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 38,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG042771
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Sirtican Bedouins of Libya

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Libyan Arabic
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Arabic, Libyan Speakers

Media Resources in Libyan Arabic:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Libyan Arabic:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2020 Mahabat El-Rahman✓

1 entry

Or check out the Libyan Arabic bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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 Sirtican Bedouins:
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 Sirtican Bedouins of Libya

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
readPsalm 51:17

Pray that those who want to achieve salvation through their works will be unsettled in their pursuit and that, with a broken spirit and contrite heart, they will trust in Christ.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
readJohn 6:35

Pray that the lost will come to Jesus and believe in Him, never to hunger or thirst again.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
readRomans 6:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, God will lead those who might hesitate in getting baptized to trust Him as they obey His command, even when obedience is hard.

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
readMark 5:20

Pray that God will bring people who appear beyond hope to faith in Jesus and that they will then go and tell others of the marvelous things He has done.

Bedouin, Sirtican Across Countries (ROP3 - 109333) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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.

Scroll to Top