Decapitations, Kidnappings Amid an Increase in Mozambique Attacks
By Matilda Coleman
February 7, 20200
People are fleeing a wave of attacks in northern Mozambique, where witnesses have described beheadings, mass kidnappings and burning villages, the United Nations said.
UN officials said armed groups have intensified the assaults in the province of Cabo Delgado, where a rebellion by a group defending their mark of Islam as an antidote to what it describes as a corrupt ruling elite, It has killed hundreds since it started in 2017.
Displaced villagers have described murders, mutilations, torture and destroyed crops, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"They talk about men in particular being white and beheaded, and many, many reports of women and children … abducted or simply disappeared," he said Friday at an information session in Geneva.
While some of the attackers appeared to be bandits, Mahecic added that "there is also the element that some of the groups are driven by ideological or other ideas."
"And they have been quite vicious … by spreading terror in this part of Mozambique," he said.
UNHCR said there was a sharp increase in violence in recent months and that the last weeks were the most turbulent period since the attacks began in October 2017.
In all, 100,000 people have been uprooted by violence in the last two years, many of them fleeing to islands with little infrastructure, he said.
"In total, at least 28 attacks were carried out in the province since the beginning of the year," Mahecic said. The violence has spread to nine of the 16 districts in the province, he added.
The fighters in the region called themselves Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, when they began launching attacks in 2017.
More recently, the ISIL group (ISIS) has claimed responsibility through its media, although there has been no independent confirmation of a link.
Ask for more troops
The northern region of Mozambique also hosts one of the largest recent gas discoveries in the world, where Exxon Mobil Corp, Total and other companies have established operations.
In recent days, Exxon and Total have asked for more troops to monitor their facilities in the north, the Reuters news agency reported.
Resources in the northern region of the East African country were affected by Cyclone Kenneth in April last year, which left 160,000 residents in need of help.
Infrastructure in the region has also been affected by recent floods, which have destroyed bridges.
Cyclone Kenneth struck just six weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated the central region of Mozambique.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
February 7, 20200
People are fleeing a wave of attacks in northern Mozambique, where witnesses have described beheadings, mass kidnappings and burning villages, the United Nations said.
UN officials said armed groups have intensified the assaults in the province of Cabo Delgado, where a rebellion by a group defending their mark of Islam as an antidote to what it describes as a corrupt ruling elite, It has killed hundreds since it started in 2017.
Displaced villagers have described murders, mutilations, torture and destroyed crops, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"They talk about men in particular being white and beheaded, and many, many reports of women and children … abducted or simply disappeared," he said Friday at an information session in Geneva.
While some of the attackers appeared to be bandits, Mahecic added that "there is also the element that some of the groups are driven by ideological or other ideas."
"And they have been quite vicious … by spreading terror in this part of Mozambique," he said.
UNHCR said there was a sharp increase in violence in recent months and that the last weeks were the most turbulent period since the attacks began in October 2017.
In all, 100,000 people have been uprooted by violence in the last two years, many of them fleeing to islands with little infrastructure, he said.
"In total, at least 28 attacks were carried out in the province since the beginning of the year," Mahecic said. The violence has spread to nine of the 16 districts in the province, he added.
The fighters in the region called themselves Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, when they began launching attacks in 2017.
More recently, the ISIL group (ISIS) has claimed responsibility through its media, although there has been no independent confirmation of a link.
Ask for more troops
The northern region of Mozambique also hosts one of the largest recent gas discoveries in the world, where Exxon Mobil Corp, Total and other companies have established operations.
In recent days, Exxon and Total have asked for more troops to monitor their facilities in the north, the Reuters news agency reported.
Resources in the northern region of the East African country were affected by Cyclone Kenneth in April last year, which left 160,000 residents in need of help.
Infrastructure in the region has also been affected by recent floods, which have destroyed bridges.
Cyclone Kenneth struck just six weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated the central region of Mozambique.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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