Berbers are an ethnic group indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa and Qara oases.Historically, Berber nations have spoken Berber languages, which are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family related to ancient Egyptian.