Tag: Myanmar

Burmese Military Occupying Two Churches in Kachin State

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According to civil society sources, militias associated with the Burmese military dictatorship operating in Kachin state are using church grounds for military purposes. The U.S.-based Burma Research Institute (BRI) verified reports of a militia graduation ceremony at Nant Mun Baptist Church in Mohnyin Township.  A building of St. Joseph’s Catholic church was also being used as a militia headquarters, and militia troops ransacked another building in the same complex. The Kachin ethnic community is made up mostly of Christians, and Kachin State stands out in Myanmar for its unusually strong Christian demography. 

The Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) conducted the ceremony in September. Sources familiar with the situation told BRI that militia members danced and drank alcohol inside the sanctuary during the event.  The incident is part of a broader pattern of military occupation and mistreatment of Christian religious sites in Kachin State, where fighting has displaced much of the local population.  According to UCA News, joint forces of the SNA and Burma’s military have occupied both Nant Mun Baptist Church and the compound of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The SNA has also used the Baptist church as a military training site; sources report that six batches of recruits have trained there. The SNA, which represents the predominantly Buddhist Shanni ethnic group, is aligned with the military junta and has fought against other ethnic armed organizations, including the Kachin Independence Army.

Joint military-SNA forces advanced into Nantmun in late 2024, forcing hundreds of Christian households to flee. Residents now report that only about 80 Kachin Christian households remain in the town, many unable to relocate because of financial constraints and restrictions on movement.  Kachin Christian leaders in the United States have condemned the occupation of the church and urged the Trump administration to respond.  “I extend my prayers and solidarity to Nant Mun Baptist Church and the Kachin Baptist Convention. I also condemn, in the strongest terms, the Burmese military’s ongoing and severe violations of religious freedom in Burma,” said Zo Tum Hmung, president and CEO of BRI.  Rev. Dr. La Seng Labya, president of the Kachin American Baptist Association, urged the Trump administration to protect Christians in Burma.

Rev. Lakang Dau Qae, general secretary of Kachin Baptist Churches USA, called on the White House to redesignate Burma as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), the U.S. government’s designation for governments responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.  The church desecration comes amid other reported restrictions on Kachin Christians. On June 9, Burma’s military-controlled Supreme Court issued an order revoking the licenses of three Baptist pastors to solemnize Christian marriages.   Christian leaders have faced personal persecution for speaking out against the junta. Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samson, former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention, met with President Donald Trump at the White House in July 2019 to discuss the persecution of Christians in Burma. He was later arrested and sentenced by a military-regime court to six years in prison, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). He has since been released. 

Burma was designated a CPC from 1999 through 2023 because of severe religious freedom violations but has not been redesignated since. In its 2026 annual report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department restore the designation.  A CPC designation could provide a basis for further U.S. diplomatic and economic measures against the military regime, including targeted sanctions and restrictions on assistance.  For Kachin Christians displaced from their homes and unable to return, the occupation of their churches represents another blow to communities already struggling to preserve their religious life amid years of conflict. Their leaders are now asking Washington to respond not only to the desecration of a sanctuary but also to the wider pattern of persecution that continues to threaten religious freedom in Burma. 

Source: Burmese Military Occupying Two Churches in Kachin State – International Christian Concern

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32

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Christian Persecution September 25-October 2 2026

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Security personnel stand outside a historic stone church

Recent reporting (roughly September 25–October 2, 2026) on Christian persecution centers on continued lethal violence in Nigeria, house-church detentions in China, and related pressures elsewhere.

Nigeria

Attacks attributed to Fulani militants continued in Plateau State’s Barkin Ladi area and nearby communities. Around September 19–20, gunmen killed a Baptist pastor (Samuel Nandi) and others while they were traveling to church; at least nine people died in related incidents that weekend, according to local reports and Christian monitoring groups. Further killings followed through late September, including ambushes of travelers, night attacks on villages, and shootings near a Christian academy and mining sites. Local accounts and advocacy outlets put the September death toll in Plateau alone above 50 in some summaries, with mass burials reported.

A mid-to-late September report from the U.S.-based group Equipping the Persecuted (drawing on field reports through September 8) counted 4,216 Christians killed in Nigeria from January 1 to September 8, 2026—an average of about 16.8 per day, or one roughly every 86 minutes—along with more than 5 million displaced and over 600 Christian communities destroyed or emptied. The group has urged the UN to treat the pattern as genocide and said a weekend terror alert via its Truth Nigeria network helped limit casualties in one recent assault that still left dozens dead. An earlier independent tally by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) reported thousands of Christians killed and abducted in the first eight months of 2026, concentrated in the Middle Belt. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs was reported to have affirmed accounts of the recent Plateau attacks and restated concern for affected communities.

Separately, Nigeria’s Senate advanced legislation that would expand oversight of organizations receiving foreign funding, which monitors say could hinder churches and groups documenting the violence.

Nigeria (Southern Kaduna, separate from Plateau)

Truth Nigeria reported that between September 13 and 21, Fulani militias abducted at least 34 Christians in Chikun and Kajuru areas (including a mass seizure of 26 in one forest incident), killed at least one man, and imposed “harvest taxes” of roughly ₦1–2 million per village before Christian farmers could enter their own fields.

China

On September 29, police in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, detained preacher An Yankui of the unregistered Taiyuan Xuncheng Reformed Church on suspicion of “organizing illegal religious activities.” ChinaAid and Chinese rights reports said he was taken from his home; subsequent accounts indicated a 15-day administrative detention. The church operates outside the state-sanctioned Three-Self system and has faced prior raids and detentions.

Coverage also continued around Pastor Ezra Jin (of Beijing’s Zion Church), released after roughly 266 days in custody. He has publicly called for the release of remaining detained church leaders and described ongoing pressure on unregistered congregations alongside expectations of growth under restriction.

Beijing Jiaquan Church: Pastor Zhou Zixun (also known as Cui Xianfeng) and seven coworkers remain in criminal detention on suspicion of “fraud,” according to a September 29 account from his wife relayed by ChinaAid. Police disrupted preparations for the church’s 20th anniversary on September 4; about 50 members were processed and most released, while eight people stayed in detention. The congregation is an unregistered urban house-church network.

Guangzhou: After three Christians from Guangfu Church distributed fans printed with Gospel messages near a school on September 16, police questioned them, accused them of illegal proselytizing, and the church was forced out of its rented meeting space (reported September 30 by ChinaAid).

Anhui (mid-September, still circulating): Officials raided a house-church site in Jinzhai County, confiscated phones, and ordered young believers not to sing hymns containing “Jesus,” “God,” or “Lord,” directing them toward songs praising the Communist Party.

India and other locations

In Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district, more than 40 churches announced that worship would be restricted to Christians only, citing security concerns after sustained local pressures (reported around September 28 by International Christian Concern).

Other items in the same window include worsening conditions reported for a small Christian subset of the Rohingya (roughly 1,500 people), circulating accounts of a Baptist pastor killed by Myanmar military personnel in Chin State, and a September church raid in Azerbaijan in which police detained dozens of members of a Protestant congregation. On the policy side, World Relief criticized the U.S. FY2027 refugee ceiling for continuing to limit admissions of people fleeing religious persecution, noting that FY2026 saw no resettlements of persecuted Christians from the countries of highest concern tracked by Open Doors.

Figures on killings and displacement come primarily from Christian advocacy and local monitoring networks rather than official government tallies; Nigerian authorities have often framed Middle Belt violence in terms of farmer-herder conflict, banditry, or criminality, while the groups cited above emphasize religious targeting alongside ethnic and land factors.

Myanmar

Reverend Dal Thawn Tuang, 49, assistant pastor of Lamzang Baptist Church in Chin State (22 years of service), was shot three times and killed on September 14 while returning from ministry in a neighboring village. Barnabas Aid, the Burma Research Institute, and local Baptist sources attribute the shooting to the military (Tatmadaw). His funeral was held September 16. Advocates note it follows the June killing of another Chin State Baptist pastor, Reverend William, and a fellow Christian after detention without trial. A resistance group claimed the shooters may have been escaped military prisoners; other accounts treat the wounds as deliberate.

Algeria

Special police raided a Christian gathering at a humanitarian shelter on September 4 and arrested 12 believers for an unauthorized non-Muslim religious service; Bibles were seized. The case drew fresh coverage in the September 19–21 window.

Pakistan

Two Christian men arrested in August on blasphemy allegations—Amir Masih (Gujranwala area) and Samuel Arif, 26 (Lahore)—remained in detention as of mid-to-late September reports. One charge can carry the death penalty. A separate September case involved the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Christian woman in Rawalpindi by a Muslim neighbor.

Sri Lanka

Courts sentenced 15 men to more than 200 years each for roles in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed at least 267 people at churches and hotels (sentencing reported around September 29).

Iran

UN experts publicly demanded an explanation for the confiscation of the country’s oldest Protestant church and the eviction of its congregation (coverage mid-to-late September).

Source: (2) Grok / X

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31

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