The attack was reportedly carried out by a group linked to Islamic State in several villages in Cabo Delgado province. The militants have targeted isolated villages over the past months as they attempt to establish an Islamic state in northern Mozambique.

 According to reports, the terrorists chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they raided Nanjaba village on Friday night, and set homes alight. The attackers set fire to several villages and gathered together people they had captured from nearby forests on a single football pitch, where the victims were then decapitated and their bodies chopped to pieces, while women from the villages were abducted. Thousand have fled their homes in the violence-hit; while the government of the region has already sought international help in training its troops to control the insurgency.

Bernardino Rafael, commander-general of Mozambique’s police, shared that the violence in the area built for several days as the ISIS-linked extremists targeted villages in the Cabo Delgado districts of Miudumbe and Macomia, killing people, abducting women and children, and burning down homes. “They burned the houses then went after the population who had fled to the woods and started with their macabre actions,” said Rafael.

 The gas-rich northern Mozambique region has witnessed several brutal attacks in past, involving killings by the Isis-affiliated local group known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo, or simply al-Shabaab local. 

 The Muslim-dominated province of Cabo Delgado has witnessed the displacement of 4.3 lac people and the gruesome killings of more than 2000 people since 2017. Although the province is rich in ruby and gas industries, the locals have failed to benefit from it due to a drastic rise in the terror activities of ISIS.

 “Heinous and horrific crimes in the name of faith and ideology. We must all unite to put an end to this totalitarian creed that is devoid of mercy and redemption,” tweeted human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

In May 2018, at least 10 people were beheaded in two villages in northern Mozambique that are close to their border with Tanzania. In another attack in April 2020, 52 people were either shot or beheaded after they refused to join the militants’ ranks, while in March the militants burnt government buildings including a police headquarters in an attack that left dozens of law enforcement officials dead. 

 International lawyer and human rights activists Hillel Neuer also expressed dismay at the incident. “Fleeing villagers were caught, beheaded & chopped to pieces in an atrocity carried out from Friday night to Sunday. The UN Human Rights Council—which spent today criticizing the USA—will say & do 0,” Neuer tweeted.

By Karishma Gwalani