An unnamed pastor from Mozambique's Cabo Delgado region was reported to have been beheaded by jihadist extremists suspected to have links with the Islamic State. They then forced the pastor's wife to carry his remains to the police station.
The Christian Post said the pastor is a resident of Nova Zambezia and that his wife relayed to the police that "suspected Islamic State-linked insurgents intercepted the pastor in a field, decapitated him and then handed over his head to her and ordered her to inform the authorities."
Mozambique, regarded as the most dangerous nation in Africa, is said to have a majority of Christians. Open Doors USA ranks Mozambique as the 45th worst country for Christian persecution. On the other hand, the United Nations say there are at least 745,000 people who are "internally displaced" in Mozambique since the 2017 Islamic attacks.
As per the Daily Mail, the pastor's wife reached the police headquarters on Wednesday. The media outlet also highlighted that Cabo Delgado is a gas-rich province that have been frequently attacked by ISIS-linked militants since 2017. The said militant group has already claimed the lives of 3,340 people and displaced at least 800,000.
Accordingly, the pastor was kidnapped from the farm before he was beheaded by the militants based on the wife's report to the police.
Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi announced on Thursday that there has been a decline of jihadist attacks as compared to the previous year thanks to Rwanda and the 16 countries forming the Southern African Development Community who aided in ending the four-year insurgency.
Data showed that there were 52 attacks in 2021 as compared to the 160 attacks made in 2020 by the jihadists. Attacks are often done through the burning of homes, crops, churches, and "anyone who is not agreeing with this specific group of terrorists."
'We were able to reduce terrorist attacks by three times,' Nyusi said.
Despite the attacks' decline, The Christian Post highlighted that the ISIS-linked militants spread terror across the Cabo Delgado province such that their scope have encompassed the Macomia and Miudumbe regions. The group has, like last month, beheaded even women and children among others from a group of more than 50 people.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said the Cabo Delgado have experienced more than 776 "organized violence events" since 2017 leading to a total of 2,578 fatalities in January 2021. ACLED said this excludes those recorded as "fatalities from civilian targeting" that totaled 1,305 in January 2021.
The "fresh wave of violence" began in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado last June when the jihadists started targeting Christians resulting to 2,838 people dead and thousands forced to relocate elsewhere for safety based on reports from World Vision, Plan International, and Children's International. Of those who died, 1,400 are said to be civilians.
Next on target for the jihadists were girls and women kidnapping at least 600 of them for slavery--that is forcing them to be married for sexual exploitation. This was exposed last week by Human Rights Watch who said the crime was conducted in a span of three years by two Muslim extremist groups: the Al Sunnah wa Jama'ah and the Al-Shabab.
The Human Rights Watch report was based on actual interviews of former captives, as well as, of government officials, security sources, and the former captives' relatives. The two militants would kidnap the girls during attacks held in various districts of the Cabo Delgado region.
Readers are urged to pray for the salvation of Mozambicans and the satefy of Christians being attacked by Islamic jihadists in Mozambique.
