Myanmar Military Destroys Churches in Chin and Kachin States October 2026

On a Friday afternoon in Mindat, the sound above the town was not a church bell. It was military jets, and by the time they had gone, one of the town's churches was wrecked.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that Myanmar's military destroyed two churches in predominantly Christian areas in October 2026. One was bombed in Chin State, and the other was burned down in Kachin State, three days apart.

The two attacks hit congregations that were already living through war. Their buildings were not only places of Sunday worship, and their loss reaches far beyond a single service.

Myanmar Military Bombs Presbyterian Church in Mindat, Chin State, October 9 2026

On October 9, 2026, at about 2:30 p.m., two military jets from a Magway air base made two bombing runs over Mindat, in Chin State. They dropped four bombs, and one hit the Presbyterian church compound, wrecking the church building.

No one was reported killed or wounded in Mindat. That detail matters, because it does not soften what happened to the building, but it does mean the congregation survived to count what they had lost.

Mindat has faced repeated ground offensives, shelling and airstrikes since the military seized power in the February 2021 coup. Many residents have fled, and the town's churches have stood through years when staying put carried real danger.

For a congregation in that position, a church is rarely just a building with a roof. It is the place where people gather when almost everything else feels uncertain, and where neighbours check on each other after another round of fighting.

When a bomb wrecks that building, the damage goes beyond timber and walls. It is measured in weddings, funerals and prayer meetings that suddenly have nowhere to happen.

Htingnan Kachin Baptist Church Burned in Bhamo, Kachin State, October 12 2026

On October 12, 2026, at about 3:30 p.m., troops from the 33rd and 88th Light Infantry Divisions burned down the Htingnan Kachin Baptist Church. They also burned houses around it in Shwe Pyi Tha Ward, the Three Mile neighbourhood, in Bhamo Township, also spelled Banmaw, in Kachin State.

The fire did not stop at the church door. Homes around the church burned too, which means families lost shelter in the same attack that took their place of worship.

Col. Naw Bu, spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army, told The Irrawaddy that soldiers set fire to a church in Three Mile Village on the road to Momauk. He spoke amid intermittent clashes, a reminder that these attacks happened inside an active conflict, not in a quiet corner of the country.

Burning a church differs from bombing one. A bomb leaves rubble in minutes, while a fire spreads house to house, leaving families watching everything they owned turn to ash.

The Bhamo congregation now faces two losses at once: their church, and neighbours' homes, all in a single afternoon.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Church Destruction Violates International Law

"The destruction of the Presbyterian church in Mindat and the Htingnan Kachin Baptist Church in Banmaw are clear violations of international humanitarian law and freedom of religion or belief."

Those are the words of CSW founder president Mervyn Thomas. His statement names both churches directly, and it frames the attacks as a legal and moral issue, not simply as collateral damage in a civil war.

International humanitarian law protects places of worship during armed conflict, and freedom of religion or belief is a right that does not pause because a country is at war. That is the standard CSW is pointing to, and it is why the organisation used such direct language.

The distinction matters for how the world should recieve news like this. If a church is destroyed by accident during fighting, that is one thing, but CSW is describing deliberate attacks on religious buildings, and that carries a different weight.

Christians in Myanmar have watched this pattern build for years, not weeks. Each new report of a church destroyed adds to a record that is becoming harder for the outside world to ignore, even as attention drifts elsewhere.

Churches in Chin, Karenni and Kachin Areas Serve as Shelters, Schools and Aid Points

CSW says churches in Chin, Karenni and Kachin areas also serve as shelters, schools and aid distribution points. That single fact changes how these attacks should be understood, because it means the buildings did far more than host a Sunday service.

When fighting forces people from their homes, a church can become the first place they run to. When schools close or become unsafe, a church hall can become a classroom, and when food and medicine are scarce, a church can become the place where help is handed out.

Destroying that kind of building therefore hits a whole community, not only a congregation. It removes shelter, learning and aid at the same time, in areas where there may be no easy replacement for any of them.

This is also why the loss in Mindat and Bhamo cannot be treated as two seperate incidents with no connection. Both churches sat at the centre of communities that depend on them for far more than worship, and both communities are now poorer in practical ways.

More Than 300 Airstrikes on Religious Sites in Myanmar Since January 2024

Monitoring group Myanmar Witness recorded more than 300 airstrikes on religious sites, including mosques, monasteries and churches, from January 2024 through December 2025. The figure covers faiths beyond Christianity, and it shows that religious buildings of many kinds have been hit.

That wider picture matters, because it stops this story from being read as an isolated tragedy. Churches, mosques and monasteries have all appeared in the same grim count, which points to a broader danger for religious life in Myanmar.

For Christians, the number also gives context to what happened in Mindat and Bhamo. These were not the first religious buildings to be attacked, and without a change in the conflict, there is no reason to believe they will be the last.

Faith communities around the world often follow stories like this through recent coverage of large worship gatherings, but the contrast could hardly be sharper. In one place, thousands gather freely to sing, while in Mindat and Bhamo, congregations have lost the very buildings where they gathered.

That contrast is worth holding in mind when reading the next report from Myanmar. The question is not only how many buildings were destroyed, but how many communities lost their shelter, their school and their aid point in the same blow.

What Happens Next for the Mindat and Bhamo Congregations?

The congregations in Mindat and Bhamo now face a long road back, and no report yet describes how or when their churches might be rebuilt. In a war zone, rebuilding is not simply a matter of money, because materials, safety and permission can all be uncertain.

What is clearer is what these congregations still have, even without their buildings. They have each other, they have their faith, and they have a record, kept by groups like CSW and Myanmar Witness, of exactly what happened to them.

That record may prove important in the months ahead, as earlier FaithStories reporting and other recent coverage of faith under pressure have shown how documentation can keep a story alive. For now, the open question is the one that should stay with every reader: when the next church in Myanmar is threatened, will anyone outside its town be watching, and will that watching be enough to make a difference?

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.