A Baptist pastor in Myanmar’s Chin state has been killed by the country’s military junta along with another Chin Christian, according to international advocacy organizations.
The Rev. William and Nam Ceu were arrested in May and remained in military custody for weeks, the U.S.-based International Christian Concern reported. Authorities accused the two men of supporting the Hakha Chinland Defense Force, an armed resistance group fighting the junta.
The Rev. William, who did not use a surname, was killed on June 4, according to the Maryland-based Burma Research Institute. A funeral service was later held Aug. 26 in Chungcung, where he had served as a pastor for more than 25 years.
His congregation, Chungcung Baptist Church, had already suffered heavily during the conflict. The church was looted and burned in October 2021, while the surrounding village of roughly 300 homes has endured repeated military raids since the coup.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been engulfed in conflict since the military seized power in a 2021 coup after overturning the election victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. The takeover transformed long-running clashes between the military and ethnic armed groups into a broader nationwide war, with newer pro-democracy forces joining established ethnic resistance movements, including some with significant Christian populations.
Fighting has devastated several predominantly Christian areas, including Chin, Kayah, Kachin, Karen and parts of Shan state, bringing airstrikes, shelling, large-scale displacement and disruptions to humanitarian assistance. About 2 million Christians live across those regions.
The killings also come amid repeated attacks on Christian sites. In March 2025, soldiers burned St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Kachin shortly before the congregation was scheduled to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day.
The cathedral attack followed earlier destruction on the same compound, where soldiers had razed a high school, priest’s residence and diocesan offices on Feb. 26. Elsewhere, airstrikes destroyed Sacred Heart Church in Mindat, Chin state, on Feb. 6 and later demolished the pastoral center at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Kachin’s Banmaw Diocese on March 3.
Human rights groups say attacks on churches, Buddhist monasteries and other religious sites are often carried out against communities suspected of supporting ethnic resistance forces.
Myanmar’s population is majority ethnic Burman and Buddhist, but the country is also home to numerous ethnic and religious minorities. Christians make up a substantial share of the Karen population and form majorities in both Chin and Kachin states.
