Barnabas Aid, May 20, 2024 (excerpts)
Please continue in prayer for the Christian community in Chin State, western Myanmar, which has come under renewed attack from the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw).
The Tatmadaw bombed two churches in the Christian-majority state in two airstrikes at around 9pm on 11 May. The churches in the village of Lungtak near the town of Tonzang were hit as the military attempted to drive out rebels from the area.
The bombardment also destroyed five houses. More than 1,000 residents from Lungtak and surrounding villages fled into nearby forests to escape the bombings.
The aerial strikes occurred just over two weeks after Tatmadaw airstrikes on a village hospital in Chin State killed five people, including four patients. The attack on the Vawmm’tu cottage hospital in Vawmm village, near Mindat township, around 270 miles south of Tonzang, was carried out on 25 April.
The hospital that provides crucial health care services to thousands of people in conflict-torn western Chin State has been repeatedly hit by Tatmadaw airstrikes despite the absence of any active fighting in the region.