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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Birifor of Burkina Faso

The Birifor of Burkina Faso, numbering approximately 277,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an indigenous community of Burkina Faso; a dialect subgroup of Malba Birifor (bfo) They are an Indigenous people, with Birifor as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Gur people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. Their primary religion is Animism. They primarily speak Birifor, Malba.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Burkina Faso
People Cluster: Gur
Primary Language(s): Birifor, Malba (bfo)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 277,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012375
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Pray for the Birifor of Burkina Faso

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: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

86%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Birifor, Malba
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Birifor, Malba Speakers

Media Resources in Birifor, Malba:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Birifor, Malba:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Birifor, Malba bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), 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): Expanding Unreached People Group, (LPI: 2), 0.5% to 2% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active 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 Birifor:
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

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Birifor 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 Birifor:
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

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 Burkina Faso

You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
readPsalm 65:9

Give thanks for God's provision in nature, and pray that those who don't know Him will recognize His hand, desire to know their Creator, and hear the truth that Jesus is the solution to the world's greatest need.

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
readPsalm 19:3

Pray that God will lead them to His Word, and where it is not available, ask that He will raise up those who will produce gospel media in their heart language.

And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be.”
readGenesis 15:5

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will trust God to keep His promises.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
read1 John 1:5

Pray that God will raise up believers who can share the gospel with people who don't know the good news of Jesus, that God is light and in him, there is no darkness at all.

Birifor, Malba Across Countries (ROP3 - 101480) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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