Wed, 11 Aug 1999 

Khartoum (Deutsche Presse Agentur) - No churches will be built in any part of the Sudanese capital without the approval of the government if the decree being drafted by the Ministry of Social Planning comes into force in a few days' time, al-Rai al-Aam daily reported Wednesday. ·

The director of church administration at the Ministry of Social Planning, Abdal-Jabar Osman, told the daily that a number of makeshift churches had mushroomed in shanty townships in the Sudanese capital without approval from the government. ·

"Shanty churches have sprung up in locations without any Christian presence," Osman told the paper. ·

He said the expected decree would put an end to the churches that had developed in the outskirts of the capital without getting permission from the government. ·

Osman made the statement following the attack on a shanty church by a Moslem sect last Sunday in a northern suburb of Khartoum. ·

The police said both sides suffered slight injuries and that 13 of the Moslem attackers and seven Christians were arrested. ·

The shanty churches are constructed by war-displaced Christians from southern and western Sudan who have settled on the periphery of the Sudanese capital. ·

They use the churches also as schools and sometimes as health centres as well. ·

A number of the churches had been set on fire by Moslem fanatics. Some of the churches have been destroyed by government town planners, causing serious distress among the displaced persons. ·

The Catholic church has been complaining about difficulty in securing permission to build a church in any part of northern Sudan. ·

The government has been arguing that it does not prevent the construction of the churches but in order for a church to be built in a particular area the people of the area must give their consent.