MOZAMBIQUE (LifeSiteNews) — Eleven Christians were killed two weeks ago in Mozambique in the latest targeted attack by terrorists loyal to the Islamic State.
Catholic international charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reported that on Friday, September 15, a massacre took place in the village of Naquitengue, near Mocímboa da Praia, in the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, leaving 11 Christians dead.
Islamist fundamentalists have been conducting brutal attacks on Christians in the region since 2017, resulting already in nearly 5,000 dead and one million displaced refugees, according to Bishop António Juliasse of the Diocese of Pemba in Mozambique.
According to testimony provided to ACN by a missionary in the region, Friar Boaventura of the Institute of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus, “terrorists arrived in Naquitengue in the early afternoon and summoned the entire population. They then proceeded to separate Christians from Muslims, apparently based on their names and ethnicity.”
“They opened fire on the Christians, riddling them with bullets,” the missionary said.
The local terrorist group that carried out the attack claims allegiance to the Islamic State and declared in a statement that it had conducted the operation, killing 11 Christians.
Friar Boaventura affirmed that the group has targeted Christians in the same way previously, causing panic among local residents. “Unfortunately, when these things happen the population gets very scared,” he said, adding that since “many people were beginning to return to their communities,” the incident has led to increased “tension and insecurity.”
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Commenting on the situation, Sister Aparecida Ramos Queiroz, who works for the Diocese of Pemba, told ACN, “only prayer can sustain us, because this conflict seems to have no end in sight.”
Another missionary stated to ACN in 2022 as religious persecution increased, “Now the Christians are beginning to be targeted and the war is taking on a more religious dimension.”
In September 2022, a terrorist attack similar to the recent massacre in Cabo Delgado occurred in the Diocese of Nacala. Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula reported the information brought to him by a Christian who escaped the attack. According to that testimony, terrorists disguised as members of the military rounded up a crowd, separating Christians from Muslims. From there, they proceeded to slit the throats of the Christians.
“This was told to us by one of the brothers of one of the victims,” Bishop Aréjula said. “He said the terrorists were dressed in military uniform, they gathered the population, and they said it was because they were here to save them.”
“When they were all gathered, they started asking who is Muslim and who is Christian,” he continued. “Those who identified as Christian, they started tying their hands behind their back and they cut their throats.”
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The day before, an Italian religious, Sister Maria De Coppi, aged 83, was shot dead in an armed attack on the Chipene mission in the Diocese of Nacala. According to reports, the attackers ransacked and burned the entire mission: the church, school, clinic, residences for the priests and nuns, library, boarding houses for boys and girls, and the mission’s vehicles.
“They destroyed everything,” Bishop Aréjula recounted.
Ulrich Kny, head of ACN’s project desk for Mozambique, praised the nun’s heroic sacrifice, hoping peace would somehow return to the region.
“May the sacrifice of the life of Sister Maria De Coppi, who shed her blood trying to save the young girls in the boarding house from the terrorists, help us to find solutions for a regional development that will benefit all the population and provide new opportunities for the young, so that peace may return to the region,” he said.
Echoing these sentiments this past summer, Bishop Juliasse lamented the massacre of Christians in Cabo Delgado in his message to those attending this year’s World Youth Day in Lisbon, saying, “There is a war in Cabo Delgado that is not being discussed. Your solidarity with Cabo Delgado helps to alleviate the immediate suffering of this people who are in such need.”
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