Barnabas Aid, January 24th, 2024 (excerpts)
Islamists have boasted of killing ten Christians in a series of attacks waged over two weeks against Christian villages in northern Mozambique.
The onslaught claimed by Islamic State coincided with the launch on 4 January 2024 of the group’s new global terror campaign, “Kill Them Wherever You Find Them”, announced in an audio message by its spokesman, Abu Hadhayfah Al-Ansari.
The wave of renewed violence in northern Mozambique centred on three districts in Cabo Delgado province, already known as “the land of fear” because of repeated Islamist terror attacks.
It began on 3 January in Mocimboa da Praia district when IS fighters struck the village of Ntotoe, two days later they hit Chimbanga village, and on 7 January gunmen opened fire with machine guns on a village in the same district.
Two Christians were murdered, and 16 houses burned down in attacks on Chai and Litamanda villages in Macomia district on 4 and 9 January, respectively.
The village of Chinda in Muidumbe district was struck on 5 January, and two believers were killed.
Around 1,800 Christians have been murdered in northern Mozambique since October 2017 in sustained anti-Christian violence.
They are among more than 50,000 Christians slaughtered in a genocidal campaign waged by Islamists across parts of sub-Saharan Africa.