Why focus specifically on the Somali people as we seek to make the gospel known to everyone on earth?
That’s a good question. It highlights the need for The Horn Project that we introduced last week. By simply taking 9 minutes to watch and share the video below you can be part of an effort to get the message of the gospel to the Somali people. The video contains a summary of God’s plan of redemption in the Somali language.
The Desperation of Somali People
To highlight the desperate situation of the Somali people, consider the following …
1. The Somali people are numerous
There are 16,965,100 Somalis, which is more than the populations of Michigan and Missouri combined. [1]
2. The Somali people don’t have access to the gospel.
We consider the Somali people Unreached. This means that there is not a community of Somali believers capable of engaging in church planting. The percentage of evangelicals is less than two percent. In fact, almost 9.6 million Somalis are Unengaged. This means that we have no church planting strategy to reach them.
3. Somalis face persecution, forcing them to flee.
Over half of the nearly 17 million Somalis live in Somalia, which is ranked second in the world in terms of countries where Christians face persecution according to the World Watch List. The unstable government in Somalia combined with the reality of Islamic terrorists and Somali clan authorities makes for an environment that is extremely hostile to Christians. Somalis are #3 in the world in terms of number of refugees. Approximately 1 million Somalis have been forced out of their homeland (and this doesn’t count those who are displaced within their own country).
4. The Somali people live across the globe.
In addition to Somalia, Somalis also live in the U.S. (42,000), Canada, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Yemen.
All statistics are taken from peoplegroups.org and Joshua Project unless otherwise noted.
