Rwandan authorities close hundreds of churches
Rwanda's president has criticized the number of churches in the capital, Kigali. There are more than 1,300 in the city of nearly 1.2 million.
Children in front of a church in Kigali, Rwanda. Some rights reserved by mrflip.
Rwanda’s government shut down more than 700 churches in its capital city in early March, citing building safety, hygiene, and noise violations. Critics charge that the administration of President Paul Kagame is trampling on religious freedom.
Police also detained six pastors, accusing them of conspiring to rally other clergy in defiance of the government’s shutdown orders.
[“The regulations address legal registration with the government and minimum building requirements for operation,” according to the Christian Recorder, the newspaper of the global African Methodist Episcopal Church. “Some of the closed churches have already reopened after making the repairs.”
