A small number of foreign Christian missionary groups operate in the country. The groups, which focus on humanitarian services in the education and health sectors, reportedly faced no harassment during the period covered by this report. Foreign missionary groups are licensed by the Government to run schools. Religion is not taught in public schools. Islamic law based on the Koran is used only with regard to family matters, and is administered by the Qadi.
Civil marriage is permitted only to non-Muslim foreigners.
Muslims are required to marry in a religious ceremony, and non-Muslim men can only marry a Muslim woman after converting to Islam. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report. There were no reports of religious detainees or prisoners. There were no reports of the forced religious conversion of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the Government's refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States. The large presence of French Catholics and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians for almost a century has led to considerable familiarity and tolerance of other faiths by the Muslim majority.