Two weeks of Islamist violence have led to the displacement of around 60,000 people in Mozambique. Locals also say that the militants have abducted children.
Ansar al-Sunna, which is aligned with ISIS, primarily operates in the northern Cabo Degado region of Mozambique. The ongoing insurgency by the group, which began in 2017, has already claimed the lives of 6,000 people. Over 460,000 people have been displaced by the conflict so far.
Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), local priest Father Kwiriwi Fonseca said, “This aimless war only kills, kills, kills, and takes away the little hope that the people – especially the children – had.
“These children must be returned, they must be sought wherever they are, to be returned to their parents because these children deserve to dream, these children deserve to have a better future.”
Father Fonesca said that adding to the pain of the deaths, abductions and chaos, is the fact that the plight of his people is relatively unknown.
Islamist violence is a well-known danger for Christians in places like the Middle East, Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and even here persecution receives scant attention from politicians and secular media. Attention on Mozambique is even more scarce.
“The humanitarian crisis caused by this war tends to be forgotten and silenced," he said.
“This silence bothers us, at a time when thousands upon thousands of our brothers in Cabo Delgado, especially in the region of Chiúre, have seen the crisis aggravated by new attacks, their homes burned, their children taken from them.”
Compounding the suffering caused by the violence is the fact that Mozambique is still recovering from a significant natural disaster after much of south-east Africa was devastated by Cyclone Chido last December.
Winds reached highs of 130 mph and while records are sketchy, it appears that hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed by the cyclone, with similar numbers also going missing.
