A shipment of Bibles believed to have been held in a Sudanese port for six years has been cleared for distribution.

The Bibles were held at Port Sudan and were 'decaying' in shipping containers, a source told World Watch Monitor (WWM), but were released a fortnight ago and transported to Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Sudan is an Islamic state where Christians routinely face discrimination and harassment.

WMM's source said the government had delayed clearing the Bibles since 2011, though the country's 2 million Christians were short of Bibles and teaching materials.

In October last year a senior church leader, who has overseen the import of hundreds of thousands of Bibles and other pieces of Christian literature to Sudan, told World Watch Monitor the Bible Society had not received any new Bibles to distribute in Sudan since 2013.

The release of the Bibles came after Sudanese authorities returned 19 properties to the Sudanese Church of Christ, two years after it confiscated them in a long-running dispute between the government and the church over the ownership of the properties.

A court ruled against the government in August and ordered the return of the properties, and that the case against five church leaders should be dropped.

Sudan is fourth on the 2018 Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.