At least two civilians were feared dead and two others injured after an aerial bombing at a Catholic church compound in the Central Papua province, West Papua.
The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) reported at least two civilians were believed dead and two others injured after the suspected drone attack on Sunday.
The incident occurred in the morning as parishioners were gathered in the courtyard of the St. Paulus Nabuni Catholic Church in Mbamogo village in the Intan Jaya Regency.
According to Father Yanuarius Yance Yogi, who is the parish priest at Bilogai, they had just finished Mass when an object (believed to be a grenade) fell from the sky and exploded.
Four people received serious injuries. First aid was administered at the church and the injured were taken to hospital.
The Australian West Papua Association (Sydney) said on Tuesday reports circulating on social media indicated two of the injured have died, but this is yet to be officially confirmed.
It was also alleged the Indonesian military carried out the bombing, although there has been no independent confirmation or an official statement from the military regarding its alleged involvement or use of drones in the incident.
Local village leaders held an emergency meeting to express concern over the safety of the parishioners and called for a transparent investigation to prevent rumours from escalating tensions.
Joe Collins of AWPA said the attack was "just another incident in the escalating conflict in West Papua".
"If pressure is not put on Jakarta to stop its military committing human rights abuses, we will have a spiral effect of ongoing clashes between the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) and the security forces, resulting in military operations, human rights abuses, and killings of civilians," Mr Collins said.
AWPA has written a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong raising concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the territory.
"The next few years will be crucial in the lives of Papuans and raising awareness of the issue is still of major importance, wherever supporters can," Mr Collins said.
"If Canberra wants a stable region to our north, it better start caring about the human rights situation in West Papua, otherwise the Papuans might look elsewhere for help."
Indonesian Navy suspended the planned construction of a patrol dock close to a Church in the restive, Christian-majority Papua region following a protest joined by hundreds of Papuans.
The decision came after Papuans, including community leaders, tribal people, and civil society members, staged a peaceful rally in front of the local legislature building in Jayapura, the largest city in Papua, on May 18.
The protesters demanded an immediate halt to the construction of the naval dock at Kayu Pulo in Jayapura.
The protest was organized by the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI), a coalition of Protestant Churches in Papua, in collaboration with youth groups and civil society coalitions. Several local legislators have also lent their support to the protesters.
Major General (Mar) Sugianto of the Jayapura Regional Naval Command reportedly met with the protesters and Church leaders, promising to pay heed to their call.
The military officer has issued a written statement, apologizing for confusion and grievances stemming from inadequate public consultations over the naval dock plan.
“All suggestions and inputs from the church will be implemented by not continuing the development of the port facility located behind the church at this time,” Sugianto, who goes by a single name, said.
The military statement was greeted with relief and cautious celebration by Church leaders and activists.
Protestant pastor Frans Mambrasar said the protest became essential as the naval plan had been made unilaterally without consultation with the church, local customary owners, or affected communities.
He said the Church authorities are determined to protect the church’s service area and the community’s land rights.
“The policy to build a military facility directly intersects with the living spaces of the community and the church’s area of ministry, which must be seriously considered,” he said.
Herlin Beatrix Monim, the first deputy of the local legislature, the Papua Province House of Representatives, said he received the document from the military suspending the plan, and promised to follow up through institutional mechanisms.
“This is not merely a matter of physical construction; it is about respect for institutional rights, ministry spaces, history, and the peace of the faithful,” she said. “Security approaches must not sacrifice or ignore humanitarian, social, cultural, and customary considerations.”
The naval dock plan flared up tension in the area with critics alleging it threatens coastal ecosystems, fisheries and other local livelihoods, and would encroach on areas long used for worship, faith education, and communal life.
The regional office of the National Commission of Human Rights also backed the protesters.
“We will continue advocacy and legal oversight to ensure the suspension is implemented, and we request guarantees that future decisions involve affected communities,” Pastor Frans added.
Papua declared independence after the end of the Dutch colonial rule in 1962. However, Indonesia annexed Papua, terming it an integral part of the archipelago, one year later.
A referendum favoring Indonesian rule is largely considered a sham.
Senior West Papuan figures have slammed the most recent Indonesian attacks on the occupied Indigenous territory of Western New Guinea.
Inside the space of approximately 48 hours, a West Papuan independence leader and the region's most prominent Christian leader have spoken out over a series of deaths and injuries among ethnic Papuans that include the elderly, a pregnant woman, and children.
Indonesian police were first found to have killed five Papuans on the eve of Good Friday church services for Easter while two others were found seriously wounded before Indonesia's military later killed 12 more civilians in a West Papuan refugee camp, all throughout April.
The authoritarian crackdown continued where police fired at Papuan students, wounding seven teenagers that were displaying the territory's Morning Star flag following their high school graduation celebrations.
The Indonesian government have said the deaths are being investigated against a backdrop of further pressure applied from its National Commission for Human Rights.
United Liberation Movement for West Papua chairman Benny Wenda has called for Indonesia's associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group be revoked immediately, and that it no longer be a dialogue partner at the Pacific Islands Forum.
Mr Wenda condemned the most recent "colonial brutality" from Indonesia's national armed forces in both the city of Timika and in the Intan Jaya province soldiers were accused of planting bombs on the bodies of deceased West Papuans that the military had killed.
Families collecting their dead kin, including respected Papuan Elders, were said to be seriously injured when the attached bombs exploded.
Neither police nor the army informed the family the body were "booby-trapped", Mr Wenda alleged in an appeal for solidarity from West Papua's Melanesian brothers that includes Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
"Indonesia has a history of hiding explosives on murdered Papuans: the TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia - the Indonesian National Armed Forces) used this method after killing (West Papuan woman) Hetina Mirpin in June 2025 in an attempt to injure her family upon them discovering her shallow grave," he said.
"Pacific leaders must ask themselves how much bloodshed they are prepared to tolerate? How many Papuans must die? How much humiliation must our Elders suffer?
"Over the past 15 years, I have raised our issue in countless meetings with Pacific leaders, but the only change has been for the worse.
"No element of West Papuan life is safe from Indonesian militarisation. Massacres occur on a weekly basis, our people are displaced every day, our churches and our schools are forcibly emptied and then occupied as military posts.
"Indonesia's suppression of the West Papuan voice is even spreading to Java and Sumatra."
Amid the ongoing 63-year Indonesian occupation of the territory, Komnas HAM - the human rights commission referred as Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia - has identified 26 cases of violence in West Papua this year so far that has contributed to at least 37 reported deaths.
The alarming rate appears on track with the 97 separate violent incidents and armed conflicts throughout 2025, but on the increase from the 64 deaths during that entire 12-month period.
Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry has declined to discuss the issue further to the media other than to confirm investigations are underway.
However, the West Papuan head of the human rights and justice department of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia, Pastor Jimi Koirewa, has come out to publicly stand against what he called was a disturbing pattern to these recent attacks.
"The children are being killed; the women are being killed," he said.
"That is a part of a genocide because the women will give birth to babies, the kids, the children, the youth - they are the future of Papua and killing them is part of a genocide.
"They're wiping us out - there will be no more people there standing in Papua.
"The old people will die gradually."
Pastor Koirewa said police rarely investigate the violence behind the incidents, leaving Papuan communities deeply mistrustful of the justice system.
He added the goodwill of the church has "no influence in Jakarta at all".
"There's so much military deployment coming into West Papua, and the reason they said is they want to get rid of rebels, OPM (Oragnisi Papua Merdeka - the Free Papua Movement) - that is what they call rebels," Pastor Koirewa said.
"They said that they want to get rid of the OPM just so that development can happen (in West Papua), so the government can come and build the land.
"But when they come in, they are not shooting the combatant, the OPM, but they are shooting at the people."
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