ICC Note: In March of this year, terrorists killed dozens during an attack on the city of Palma in Cabo Delgado province, an area where believers are often kidnapped, forced to flee or killed at the hands of Islamic extremists. Since 2017, the UNHCR estimates that 700,000 people have been displaced and 2,500 killed by ISIS-linked militants.

08/05/2021 Mozambique (Christianity Today) – Back in April, when armed men began attacking his village in the middle of the night, a pastor of a local church in northern Mozambique woke his family to flee. He took his two older sons and his wife took their two younger sons. In the midst of chaos and confusion, shouting and shooting, they escaped in two different directions.

The pastor and his sons hid in the surrounding bush all night before returning to the village, near the town of Palma, to look for the rest of their family. The next morning, he found their hut caved in and the remains of his four-year-old son, who had been beheaded by the attackers. All he and his sons could do was dig a hole in the ground to bury the young boy’s body and weep together. To this day, his wife and second-youngest son are still missing.

This pastor shared his story with CT through English-speaking ministry partners in Mozambique. He asked that he and his village remain unnamed for security reasons, but his story is not unique as conflict escalates in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Countless innocent civilians are fleeing the area where insurgents have been burning entire villages to the ground and brutalizing their inhabitants—including beheading, recruiting, capturing, enslaving, and committing sexual crimes against them. The violence has killed thousands of people and displaced upward of 800,000, a number that is growing rapidly and may soon reach one million, United Nations officials warn.

“The north of Mozambique, especially Cabo Delgado province … is being affected by Islamic insurgents, who at some stage claim to be linked with Islamic State,” said Mauricio Magunhe, faith and development coordinator for World Vision Mozambique.

“For the Christians living in that area, it’s very important to have the word of God so that it can renew their faith and hope in such a time of turbulence. The word of God can be used in efforts for peacebuilding in that area, as well as in the country as a whole,” he said. “If we work together as Mozambican citizens and as leaders from different religions, it is possible to educate our people not to adapt that kind of situations that bring a lot of destruction and pain for our people.”

Written by: STEFANI MCDADE

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