Barnabas Fund, 10 November 2020
Islamic militants turned a village football pitch in northern Mozambique into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people between Friday, 6 November and Sunday, 8 November.
In one attack, gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” stormed into Nanjaba village on 6 November, firing weapons and setting homes alight. Two villagers were beheaded and several women were abducted.
Christians who refuse to deny Christ are amongst the victims. The attacks are amongst the worst seen, in recent years. Desperate people are flooding in to the Christian mission stations for protection.
More than 2,000 people have been killed and about 430,000 left homeless in the region since 2017. The militant Islamist organisation, known locally as Al Shabaab (not the Somali-based group), is linked to Islamic State and has effectively gained control of an area of Cabo Delgado.