CABO DELGADO, Mozambique
The population of Mucojo, a coastal district of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, found the decapitated bodies of seven people, including a 3-year-old child, between Thursday and Saturday last week, a local security source told Lusa.
According to
information from residents, the first two victims were beheaded in the village
of Lumumua, where they were looking for water, another two were killed in
Pankoma and the remaining three victims, including a child, were killed in the
village of Nagulue, 10 kilometres from the headquarters of the administrative
post of Mucojo.
All are
suspected to have been victims of rebels, members of the armed insurgency in
the region, which since July has been losing ground to military forces.
Some
militiamen who are in the area went to the places and reported that the bodies
found in Nagule were already very decomposed.
Cabo Delgado
province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed
rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
The conflict
has led to more than 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration
project, and more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican
authorities.
Since July,
an offensive by government troops with support from Rwanda which was later
joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allowed for
increased security, recovering several areas where there was rebel presence,
including the town of Mocímboa da Praia, which had been occupied since August
2020. - Lusa
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