At least six people have been beheaded and an Italian nun killed by ISIS-linked terrorists in Mozambique’s Nampula province, authorities have said.
Mozambique’s restive north has suffered a spate of attacks since 2017.
ISIS members set fire into a church and other properties in Nampula province, an area rich with gas.
Speaking on Wednesday in the resort town of Xai Xai north of the capital Maputo, President Filipe Nyusi said the terrorists unleashed a killing spree as they fled from soldiers from Mozambique, Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sent to tackle the violence.
“On the 6th of September, as a result of terrorist attacks, six citizens were beheaded, three kidnapped, six terrorists were captured and dozens of houses torched in the districts of Erati and Memba, Nampula province,” Nyusi said.
According to media reports, confirmed by Nampula province secretary of state Mety Gondola, 83-year-old Italian nun Maria De Coppi, who lived in the city of Nacala, was shot in the attack, while two other missionaries managed to escape.
The Muslim World League (MWL) denounced the “terror attack on a church, hospital, and humanitarian facilities in Mozambique that left many casualties and injured people.”
The MWL offered condolences to the families of the victims and the wounded of this terrorist crime, which targeted civil facilities that were a haven to hundreds of households and children escaping the drought and conflicts.
Mozambique faces economic challenges as a result of the security condition hindering the exploitation of the rich gas fields in ISIS-ruled areas.
Despite this, the government announced weeks ago that it will send the first shipment of liquified gas in the Coral South field in October.
