On September 6, at least six people were beheaded, and an Italian nun was shot and killed in Mozambique’s Nampula province.
Mozambique: at least 6 people beheaded, Italian nun shot dead by Islamic State-linked terrorists https://t.co/KfAK8CTJIz pic.twitter.com/intjoRo0rS
— (@Chahali) September 10, 2022
Due to an escalation of Islamic State-linked insurgency, in June 2021, the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) approved the deployment of troops into the southeastern African country. Since 2017, the insurgency has displaced almost 800,000 people and caused a $20 billion natural gas project to halt entirely. The decision to send in troops was difficult, as the Institute for Security Studies senior researcher, Liesl Louw-Vaudran, said, “This is the first time that the SADC standby force has mobilized in a counter-terrorism operation which is not peacekeeping. It’s a situation that’s very complex.”
The SADC chairperson, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi, recently announced an extension of the mission, which was set to end in mid-July. Chakwera said it was necessary to prevent the mission from being compromised. The EU’s diplomatic mission to Mozambique announced an additional $45 million in financial support for the country’s Army.
According to the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute of The United States Congress, “the insurgency and state security responses to it have resulted in many serious human rights abuses and killings, widespread social trauma and property destruction, and massive population displacements, creating a complex humanitarian crisis.”
The insurgents often attack security force posts and convoys but have also attacked civilian state workers and facilities such as schools and clinics. They also injure, kill and kidnap residents, especially young children, and women. Mass beheadings take place as revenge for resisting recruitment or to persons or villages suspected of assisting the authorities.
President Filipe Nyusi said this latest killing spree occurred as insurgents fled from SADC soldiers. “On the 6th of September, as a result of terrorist attacks, six citizens were beheaded, three kidnapped, six terrorists were captured, and dozens of houses torched in the districts of Erati and Memba, Nampula Province,” he said.
An additional media report of a shooting death was confirmed by Nampula Secretary of State Mety Gondola. Eighty-three-year-old Maria De Coppi, an Italian nun, was shot and killed during the attack. The insurgents, including the church, hospital, and primary and secondary schools, set the Catholic mission on fire. Reports allege that she was killed trying to reach a dormitory where students may have been hiding. De Coppi had served as a missionary there since 1963.
Sister Maria De Coppi, an Italian Comboni religious sister, has died in Mozambique when her missionary compound was attacked by a terrorist group who set fire to the local Catholic church.https://t.co/gqScEKyOtY
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) September 9, 2022
According to reports, Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
