The language has a few thousand native speakers in spread along the coast between southern Gabon and Cabinda, most of them in the Republic of the Congo's Kouilou, Pointe-Noire and Niari departments.
The Vili people (singular Muvili, plural Bavili) were the population of the 17th- to 18th-century Kingdom of Loango in the same region.
References
^Civili is pronounced Tchivili and can also be pronounced Tshivili.
^Vili at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
