Mozambique: at least 20 dead in a new massacre in the north of the country
Mozambican soldiers on March 7, 2018 in Mocimboa da Praia, in the wake of an attack by suspected Islamists in the region.
ADRIEN BARBIER / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
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The massacre was carried out earlier this week in the Cabo Delgado region in the north.
Last Monday, bodies were found in a forest.
It is in this province rich in hydrocarbons and bordering Tanzania that insurgents have been raging for three years who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
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At least five adults and fifteen teenagers have been beheaded by suspected jihadists.
The attack took place in Muidumbe district as the victims participated in an initiation ceremony.
No claim for the moment, but some observers say they are surprised by this attack attributed to the Islamist insurgents.
The Cabo Delgado region is predominantly Muslim, but in the Makondé area, where the massacre took place, the population is predominantly Christian.
It would therefore be an act to kill, terrorize and not to recruit as has already happened.
At the beginning of April, for example, fifty-two young villagers from the same province had been shot dead or beheaded.
They had refused to join the ranks of the Islamists.
Other villages have been assaulted, looted and burned since the arrival of these jihadists in 2017. Their goal is to spread terror and try to establish a caliphate there.
According to the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data group, Islamist insurgents have already been responsible for the deaths of at least 2,000 people since their arrival and have caused the displacement of 400,000 Mozambicans.
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