Voice of America: [2] Militants affiliated with the Islamic State terror group have increased their attacks in recent weeks against security forces and civilians in the restive northern region of Mozambique.
[3] This week, IS announced via its Amaq News Agency that its affiliate in Central Africa had killed nine soldiers from the Mozambican army in the province of Cabo Delgado. [4] Local news also reported clashes between Mozambican security forces and Islamist insurgents near a village in the Muslim-majority region.
[5] Since 2017, Islamist militants have carried out deadly attacks against the military and local residents in Cabo Delgado, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands others.
[6] But U.N. officials say there has been a dramatic increase of such attacks in recent months. “Armed groups have been randomly targeting local villages and terrorizing the local population.
… We have reports of beheadings, kidnappings and disappearances of women and children,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), during a recent news briefing. “The attacks have now spread across nine out of the 16 districts in Cabo Delgado.”
In total, the U.N. says, at least 28 attacks have been carried out in Cabo Delgado since the beginning of the year.
The violence has displaced more than 100,000 people throughout the province, UNHCR said.