NAIROBI, Kenya — The Islamic State militants, by several accounts, struck the tiny farming community on a plateau in northern Mozambique during an initiation rite to induct teenage boys into manhood. Armed with machetes, the attackers beheaded as many as 20 boys and men in the village of 24 de Marco, according to a local media report that was confirmed on Wednesday by ACLED, an American crisis monitoring group that maps the exploding insurgency in Mozambique. The atrocity in early November was just one episode in a brutal conflict unfolding in Cabo Delgado, a remote, resource-rich province of northern Mozambique. Insurgents who pledge allegiance to the Islamic State have grown dramatically in strength this year — seizing territory, capturing a port and stepping up brutal attacks on civilians that often involve beheadings. The deepening humanitarian crisis has displaced at least 355,000 people according to the United Nations — up from 90,000 in January.

Source: International New York Times November 11, 2020 21:11 UTC