In the nearly two-minute-long video, men in military uniforms are seen chasing a naked woman, harassing her verbally and verbally on a village road. One of the men repeatedly hit him with a stick before the other man hit him at a nearby range.
She was then repeatedly shot by men when one of the men sleeping on the street shouted “Stop, stop, stop, it’s over.”
The video ends with the men returning and leaving, one of them announcing, “They have killed al-Shabab,” a local name given to a growing uprising in the far north of the country.
There are no known links with the Somali terrorist group of the same name. The uniformed man looks straight into the camera and raises his two fingers before the recording stops.
Deproz Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and South Africa, said the horrific video of human rights abuses by Mozambican forces in Cabo Delgado was yet another horrific example.
In its own analysis of the video, the human rights group says the men wore Mozambican military uniforms. Amnesty says four different gunmen shot the woman 36 times in total with AK-s and PKM-style machine guns. His investigation has concluded that the incident took place near a residence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Muchena said the incident was consistent with recent findings of human rights violations and crimes under international law in the region.
CNN could not independently identify the authenticity of the video, the date and location of the shooting, nor the gunman.
Mozambique’s Interior Minister Amade Mikidade said on national television on Tuesday that he did not pay special attention to the video, denying allegations of atrocities and saying rebels often wore military uniforms.
“When they want to propagate themselves against the Mozambican state, against the security and defense forces, they remove the signs / characters that identify them and make videos to promote the image of the atrocities being perpetrated by those defending the people.”
Cabo Delgado has billion 60 billion in natural gas development that is heavily guarded by Mozambique’s military and private security.
Aligned with ISIS, the rebels have carried out increasingly sophisticated attacks in recent months, crossing large parts of Mosimba de Praia, a strategic port north of the regional capital Pemba, in August. Unlike previous attacks, government forces have struggled to retake the area.
The rebels have been accused by the government and human rights groups of their own violent abuse – including beheadings, robberies and indiscriminate killings of civilians.
And the home minister on Tuesday shed light on that alleged abuse.
“Once, our country has been invaded by terrorists, i.e. in the province of Cabo Delgado, where they have committed brutal, inhumane, atrocious acts against our population,” Mikwidde said.
Security analysts and human rights activists say insurgents operating in the area sometimes wear Mozambican military uniforms. But the men in uniform in the video speak of the murder of a woman in Portuguese, which is common among people in southern Mozambique.
CNN’s David Mackenzie and Brent Swells report from Johannesburg and Vasco Cotovio from London.
.
