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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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The Sahrawi of Western Sahara

The Sahrawi of Western Sahara, numbering approximately 274,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an ethnic group of mixed Hassani Arab and Sanhaji Amazigh descent indigenous to the western part of the Sahara Dessert. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Hassaniyya is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Sahrawi

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Arab Peoples
Country: Western Sahara
People Cluster: Arab, Hassaniya
Primary Language(s): Hassaniyya (mey)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 274,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG050581
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Pray for the Sahrawi of Western Sahara

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

—
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Hassaniyya
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

90%
%
Hassaniyya Speakers

Media Resources in Hassaniyya:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Hassaniyya:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
PBT Version✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Hassaniyya bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

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 Sahrawi:
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 Sahrawi of Western Sahara

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
readRomans 1:20

As God's creation declares His glory, pray that multitudes who don't know Him will see the works of His hands and desire to know more about the Creator.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
readPsalm 96:9

Pray that many who do not yet know Jesus will come to know Him and worship Him in the splendor of His holiness.

I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
readPsalm 3:5-6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and experience isolation or other persecution, God will sustain them and give them confidence and rest in Him.

And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
readMark 1:17-18

Pray that God will raise up believers from this place and/or other cultures nearby to proclaim the gospel to those who desperately need to encounter it.

Saharawi Across Countries (ROP3 - 108512) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

3 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▲Religion
SahrawiPG011272SahrawiAlgeria242,000Engaged yet UnreachedHassaniyyaSunni Islam
SahrawiPG042786SahrawiMorocco692,000Engaged yet UnreachedHassaniyyaSunni Islam
SahrawiPG050581SahrawiWestern Sahara274,000Unengaged and UnreachedHassaniyyaSunni 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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