Horror in Mozambique: denounce that jihadists behead children

The non-governmental organization Save the Children denounced Tuesday that children as young as eleven had been beheaded by jihadists responsible for dozens of attacks in recent months in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado (north), which also provoked the displacement of approximately 670,000 people. people.

Elsa, a 28-year-old mother interviewed by the NGO, said her 12-year-old son was beheaded near where she was hiding with her three other children in an attempt to escape attack on her town , in which houses had been set on fire. .

“When I started drinking I was at home with my four children. We tried to escape into the woods, but my oldest son was captured and beheaded. We couldn’t do anything because they would have killed us too, ”he said.

Likewise, Amelia, 29, said that one of her 11-year-old sons was killed by gunmen without being able to bury his body.

“When my eleven-year-old son was killed, we realized that he was no longer safe to stay in my village,” he said.

“We fled to my father’s house in another village, but a few days later the attacks started there as well. My dad, the kids and I spent five days eating bananas and drinking banana water until we found a means of transportation to get us here, ”he said from home. of one of his brothers.

In this sense, the director of Save the Children in Mozambique, Chance Briggs, stressed that “the information about the attacks on children is making us sick to the core”.

“Our staff cried as they listened to the stories of suffering told by mothers in the IDP camps,” he lamented.

“This violence must stop and displaced families need support as they navigate and recover from the trauma,” he said, adding that “a major concern is that the needs of children IDPs and their families in Cabo Delgado far exceed the resources available. to support them ”.

In this way, he made it clear that< près d'un million de personnes sont confrontées à une situation de faim grave en conséquence directe du conflit, y compris les personnes déplacées et les communautés d'accueil >> and stressed that “while the world has focused on Covid-19, the crisis in Cabo Delgado has increased, but it has been ignored”.

“Humanitarian aid is desperately needed, but not enough donors have prioritized aid to those who have lost everything, including their children,” he said, while calling on all parties to ” ensure that children are never a target “.

“They must respect humanitarian and human rights laws and take all necessary measures to minimize accidental damage to civilians, including an end to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on children,” Briggs said.

The conflict has claimed 2,614 lives to date, including 1,312 civilians, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), which tracks these types of incidents, with attacks increasing during the year. last.

The President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, reiterated in February his offer to guarantee an amnesty for fighters who leave the ranks of jihadist groups to reintegrate into civilian life. “We will do everything so that the Mozambican people understand that it has been manipulated and used,” he said.

Since October 2017, the province of Cabo Delgado has been the scene of attacks by Islamist militiamen who, since mid-2019, have been mostly claimed by the Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which has intensified its actions since March 2020.

Training in the United States

The situation led the United States to announce a two-month training program with Mozambique to train Mozambican Marines “to support efforts to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism,” as confirmed the American embassy in this African country.

“The United States gives priority to respect for human rights, the protection of civilians, contacts with civil society and all its assistance in matters of security”, he declared, before add that “in addition to training, the US government provided medical and communications equipment.”

Thus, he stressed that Washington “is committed to assist Mozambique with a multifaceted and holistic position to confront and prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism, a position that addresses issues of socio-economic development in addition of the security situation “.

“The protection of civilians, human rights and community activities are at the heart of US cooperation and are one of the pillars for effectively confronting the Islamic State in Mozambique,” the embassy noted in its statement.

Deputy Commander of the United States Special Operations Command in Africa (SOCAFRICA) Richard Schmidt represented the Department of Defense at Monday’s dedication ceremony, which was attended by Major General Ramiro Ramos Tulcidás at the name of the government of Mozambique.

The US State Department last week designated the Islamist group Al Shabaab – unrelated to the one operating in Somalia, which has links to Al Qaeda – as a terrorist organization because of its links to the Islamic State. Thus, its leader, Abu Yasir Hassan, is listed as a “specially designated global terrorist”.