Source: Barnabas Fund, January 6, 2020
The United Wa State Army (UWSA) in control of the Wa Special Region in Myanmar (Burma), bordering China’s Yunnan province, has allowed at least 50 churches to reopen.
Local church leaders issued a plea for prayer when the China-backed, Communist influenced separatist group closed more than 100 churches in northern Shan State in 2018, demolishing some and banning the construction of new church buildings. At least 200 Christian leaders and workers were “investigated” and detained. All have since been released.
A Bible school was also shut down and 41 of its students arrested and forced into hard labor as military porters.
Local church leaders welcomed the reopenings and reported that most church buildings in the towns of Panghsang, Hopang, Kho Pang and Namphan are now open for worship, leaving only one church and a school building still closed.
[The region] is home to several ethnic groups including Wa, Kachin, Ta’ang, Lahu, Lisu, Kokang, Shan, Chinese, and Burman. Christians form the largest religious group in the region, estimated to be 30 percent of the population.
» Read full story or check out what seems to be the source of this report, which clarifies some details (The Irrawaddy).