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Jihadists have wreaked havoc in Mozambique’s northeastern Cabo Delgado province for the past three years, devastating towns and cities as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate.
FILE: Mozambican army soldiers patrol the streets after security was increased in the area, following a two-day attack by suspected Islamists in October last year, on March 7, 2018 in Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique. Image: AFP
MAPUTO – Alleged militants beheaded more than a dozen men and teenagers participating in a male initiation ceremony in northern Mozambique, local sources said on Wednesday, in the latest violent incident in the insurgency-hit northeast of the country.
The dismembered bodies of at least five adults and 15 children were found on Monday, strewn across a forest clearing in Muidumbe district.
Islamist militants operating in the area attacked several nearby villages over the weekend, looting and burning houses before retreating into the surrounding bush.
“The police learned of the massacre committed by the insurgents through reports of people who found bodies in the forest,” said an official from the neighboring Mueda district who asked not to be identified.
“They could count 20 bodies spread over an area of about 500 meters,” he added.
“They were young people who were in a rite of passage ceremony accompanied by their advisers.”
A humanitarian worker in Mueda, who also declined to be identified, confirmed that the massacre had taken place and said that some of the children had come from that area.
She said the body parts had been sent to their families for burial on Tuesday.
“The funerals were held in an environment of great pain,” said the worker, hired by the World Food Program to assist citizens displaced by the riots.
“The bodies were already decomposing and could not be shown to those present.”
Mozambican authorities have yet to comment on the deaths and provincial police did not respond to multiple AFP phone calls outside of office hours.
Jihadists have wreaked havoc in Mozambique’s northeastern Cabo Delgado province for the past three years, devastating towns and cities as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate.
Militants have stepped up their offensive in recent months and violently seized swaths of territory, terrorizing citizens in the process.
In April, jihadists shot dead and beheaded more than 50 youths for allegedly refusing to join their ranks.
The unrest has killed more than 2,000 people since 2017, more than half of them civilians, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Group.
More than 400,000 people have been displaced by the conflict and have sought refuge in nearby towns and cities.
About 100,000 people fled to the provincial capital, Pemba, by boat in the past week alone, Doctors Without Borders said on Tuesday, raising concerns about access to safe water and sanitation.
Little is known about the Mozambican jihadists, who call themselves al-Shabab, although they have no known ties to the group of that name operating in Somalia.
Last year, militants pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State group.
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