(UCAN): Aerial bombings by military junta have left a Catholic Church and a Baptist Church damaged in a village in the Christian-majority Chin state in western Myanmar, according to report by Fides on May 15.
The churches in the village of Lungtak near the town of Tonzang were hit as the military launched an offensive to flush out ethnic rebels from the area between May 11 and 12.
The bombardment also destroyed five houses, prompting terrified villagers to flee their homes.
The affected Catholic church is under the Diocese of Kalay. Parish priest Father Titus En Za Khan, managed to flee to nearby forests with local people to escape bombings.
“The violence continues to impact the civilian population, especially in the area of Sagaing, part of the Diocese of Kalay,” a local Catholic told Fides.
In Chin state, which shares borders with India and Bangladesh, the military has been engaged in a deadly battle to regain control of the territories from several ethnic armed rebel groups including the Chin National Army and Zomi Revolutionary Army.
Due to ongoing fighting, a humanitarian crisis prevails in the state, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization, an NGO with special advisory status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
The military’s indiscriminate attacks including aerial bombings on civilian homes, schools and churches have worsened the crisis in the various parts of the state, it said.
Reports say the military intensified attacks in Chin state after resistance fighters from Chin, Magwe and Rakhine areas, joined by newly emerged People’s Defense Forces, recently captured the strategically important town of Kyindwe in the Chin Hills of the Arakan Mountains.
The 2021 military coup that toppled the democratically elected civilian government of the National League for Democracy plunged Myanmar into a civil war.
The coup pushed Myanmar to military rule again after a brief stint of democracy. The military attempted to crush strong anti-coup protesters across the country with brute force, leaving thousands killed, injured, and arrested.
