The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On June 4, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) Mozambique Province released a series of photographs which document the aftermath of a series of attacks perpetrated by its operatives in late May 2022 against what it describes as "villages of the unbeliever Christians" in Cabo Delgado Province in northeastern Mozambique.[1] The dates of the attacks and the names of the villages are not provided with the photographs. However, according to previous ISIS reports, it appears that the attacks referred to are those which were carried out against six Christian villages between May 23 and May 31, 2022, in which, according to ISIS, eight people were killed, among them at least four Christian civilians.
Six decapitated bodies are shown in the photographs, as well as Christian houses in flames and possessions that were seized.
Furthermore, issue 341 of the ISIS Al-Naba' weekly magazine, published on June 2, 2022,[2] includes a report about three attacks perpetrated by ISIS on May 29 and 30, 2022, against three Christian villages in the Meluco area of Cabo Delgado. According to this report, the residents' houses and their possessions were set on fire during the attacks, but no information is supplied about the extent of the harm caused to the residents themselves.
On May 23 and 24, 2022, ISIS claimed responsibility for attacks on three villages in Cabo Delgado, in which eight people were killed. The same information is provided on two posters published by the pro-ISIS Al-Murhafat Foundation on June 4, 2022,[3] which summarize the organization's attacks against Christian villages in Cabo Delgado Province in late May and early June.
Meanwhile, as of this writing at the start of the second week of June, the attacks against Mozambique's Christians are continuing, and on June 5, ISIS reported that its operatives attacked yet another Christian village in Cabo Delgado Province, killing one Christian and setting fire to dozens of houses.
These attacks are part of an apparent escalation in ISIS activity in Mozambique[4] over the past two weeks. They follow the organization's May 9, 2022 declaration that Mozambique is an independent ISIS province,[5] while it had previously referred to it as part of what ISIS calls the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) which includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
[1] Telegram, June 4, 2022.
[2] Telegram, June 3, 2022.
[3] Telegram, June 4, 2022.
[4] See MEMRI JTTM Report: ISIS Continues Its Escalation Of Attacks In Mozambique By Burning Christian Homes, May 31, 2022.
[5] See MEMRI JTTM Report: Islamic State (ISIS) Escalates Activity In Mozambique After Designating It Its Own Province, May 25, 2022.
The full text of this post is available to subscribers.
Please login or register to request subscription information from MEMRI
