Mozambique militants beheading children as young as 11, Save the Children says

Children as young as 11 are being beheaded in Mozambique, UK-based aid group Save the Children said on Tuesday, as part of an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced many magnitudes more from their homes.

Save the Children said it had spoken to displaced families who described "horrifying scenes" of murder, including mothers whose young sons were killed. In one case, the woman hid, helpless, with her three other children as her 12-year-old was murdered nearby.

"We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him," the 28-year-old, who Save the Children called Elsa, is quoted as saying.

"We couldn't do anything because we would be killed too."

Another mother, a 29-year-old Save the Children calls Amelia, said her son was just 11 when he was killed by armed men.

Reuters could not immediately reach Mozambique police or government spokespeople for comment.

Mozambique's northernmost province of Cabo Delgado has since 2017 been home to a festering insurgency, linked to Islamic State, that has escalated dramatically in the past year.

 

 

 

REUTERS