generalspeaking: Mutilating a Population, Islamists Beheading Children

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Mutilating a Population, Islamists Beheading Children

"That night our village was attacked and houses were burned."
"When it all started, I was at home with my four children. We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son [12-year-old son] and beheaded him."
"We couldn't do anything because we would be killed, too."
Elsa, 28, Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique

"[Reports of violence against children in Cabo Delgado] sicken us to our core."
"While the world was focused on COVID-19, the Cabo Delgado crisis ballooned but has been grossly overlooked."
Chance Briggs, country director in Mozambique, Save the Children

A couple who fled militants in northern Mozambique with their three children - their eldest son was beheaded

This couple fled their village after their oldest son was beheaded by jihadists Rui Mutemba/Save the Children

In the northeast corner of Mozambique the conflict in Cabo Delgado, an area rich in oil and gas, intensified in the last year. The worst violence has emanated from al-Shabab, a local Islamist group with no known links to the more infamous Somali terrorist militias with the same name. Concern has been voiced by security experts relating to the arrival of foreign fighters using methods similar to those in conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The news that children as young as 11 years of age were being beheaded by terrorists in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique, part of a local Islamist insurgency battling against government forces, has been a discovery of horror to Save the Children aid group who have interviewed village families for witness accounts of the unspeakable atrocities reminiscent of the glory days of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Displaced families gave their testimonies of young children killed by the local group of terrorists who refer to themselves as al-Shabab. A 29-year-old displaced woman whose name was offered as Amelia informed the interviewers that her son was beheaded. "After my 11-year-old son was killed, we understood that it was no longer safe to stay in my village", she informed the group. In fleeing the village, she said, they were unable to spare the time to properly bury her child.

Muslims praying in a mosque in Mocimboa da Praia

Mozambique has a Muslim population of about 18% AFP

Police Commander Bernardine Rafael last November recounted that at least fifty people had been decapitated in the first half of the month, adding to reports of beheading in the conflict in Cabo Delgado. Last year American officials revealed that the core Islamic State militant group has sent fighters to Mozambique to train the locals, formally adopting al-Shabab as the Mozambican wing of its Central Africa Province.