Jihadists have turned the northern Mozambican Province of Cabo Delgado into a killing field of at least 5,000 Christians. More than a million Christians have been displaced since 2017. The mineral-rich area has become a place where Christians are often treated as people of no human value.
Christians in Cabo Delgado are beheaded and cut into pieces with machetes. Women and girls are gang-raped in front of their children and other relatives. These savage acts are committed by radical jihadists of the Islamic State of Mozambique and Al-Shabaab.
João Maimba, a native of Nangade in Cabo Delgado, said he was displaced in 2023. He does not know where to find his wife and three daughters. Maimba narrowly escaped beheading. “I saw Al-Shabaab beheading my brother,” he said, and went silent for minutes.
“I have never seen a human being slaughtering others like chicken. They did it in front of my family and children, the oldest aged 12 at the time,” Maimba said.
Maimba now lives in the Mikindani-Mtwara District of Tanzania. He fled through the cover of bushes, walking a few kilometers only at night, until he reached the Rovuma River bordering Tanzania. “Here I found five Tanzanian black-market traders,” he said. “They were my tribesmen, Makonde, and they took me to their village across the river.”
A director of a high school in the province said the fighters are not Mozambicans, but are jihadist foreigners of different nationalities supported by local radicalized youth.
He added that thousands of families, including children, do not know if their relatives are alive or where to find them. Some have not known for several years.
“The sick, elderly, children, and the people living with disability pay the highest share of pain. They are left behind by their caregivers whenever the militants attack the villages,” the educator said.
He described the situation in the province as dire. “The people of Cabo Delgado are helpless, homeless,” he said. They “live in extreme fear and poverty, and mental illness is their shared common identifier.”
It has been 60 years since the province witnessed its first armed conflict in a war for independence from Portugal, which had occupied the area since 1498. Alberto Chipande fired the first bullet in Chai village, Macomia District, Cabo Delgado, on the night of September 25, 1964. That date, known as Revolution Day or Armed Forces Day, is an annual holiday.
Chipande led the military wing of the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO). The 10-year war ended in 1974, and the country attained independence on June 25, 1975. Chipande became Mozambique’s first minister of defense, and FRELIMO has ruled Mozambique since then.
The current waves of violence remind the people of Cabo Delgado of Portuguese atrocities during the liberation war. The jihadists burn houses, schools, and church buildings, including some that shelter internally displaced persons. They loot shops and medical facilities. They kidnap children—boys for training as child soldiers, and girls for forced marriages to fighters. Schools and hospitals have been closed across the region, leaving many without any access to education or healthcare.
The educator said that the Islamic State wants to turn the Christian-majority country into an Islamic nation.
“Despite the atrocities, we Mozambican Christians stand by our faith with spiritual warfare through prayers and embracing inter-religious coexistence against any form of religious war. Muslims, Hindus, and many others are our brothers and sisters, and we also pray for them.”
Amnesty International has reported on a video that shows soldiers burning corpses.
The conflict’s magnitude is attested by multiple reliable sources familiar with the region. Members of Mozambican Defence Armed Forces are overwhelmed and unable to defeat Islamic State terrorists.
In 2021, the Southern African Development Community formed an intervention force of troops from eight out of 15 member countries: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
These forces supplement the work of Rwandan Security Forces, which already were on the ground. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo visited Rwanda in August, and he thanked the people of Rwanda for their military support.
“I pay homage to the men and women of Rwanda, who alongside Mozambique forces have been fighting the terrorists—the enemies of peace, stability, development, and the well-being of the Mozambican people,” President Chapo said in The East African, a leading Kenyan weekly newspaper.
The Rt. Rev. Manuel Ernesto, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Nampula and Cabo Delgado, is on the first line of defense for traumatized and suffering Christians. He is also chairman of an interfaith peace-building platform, Peace Clubs Mozambique.
Bishop Ernesto, supported by ministers and volunteers, continually risks danger in visiting remote villages to offer spiritual and humanitarian support to his people. “We are aware of the danger, but we live by faith and trust in God’s protection,” he told TLC.
“As the Anglican Church, we provide spiritual leadership in times of crisis, pastoral care, and trauma first aid for those emotionally most affected,” the bishop said. “The church also provides hospitality, emergency relief, and food, and mobilizes local communities to create a welcoming environment.”
Ernesto says Christians and Muslims had peacefully lived together in the region for centuries. Things changed in 2017 after the development of the extractive industry that followed the discovery of rubies, oil, gas, and rare minerals in the province’s Rovuma Basin, which is now controlled by jihadists.
He added that 5,000 people have been killed and over 1 million displaced. “More recent attacks occurred in Mazeze, Chiure Velho villages, and others along River Lurio,” he said.
Ernesto said there are growing numbers of internally displaced persons, mainly women and children. Church volunteers face down risks in providing care for elderly people left behind in conflict-ravaged villages. Displaced Christians face a specific vulnerability of persecution because of their faith.
“Local host congregations with limited financial resources have faced increased fragility as the last rainy season (2024-25) brought three successive cyclones,” the bishop said. “These caused the collapse of houses, and church buildings used for worship and shelter” of displaced persons.
But he expressed thanks for the generosity of the Angola, London, and Mozambique Association, a London-based organization that has partnered with MANNA, another U.K. charity focused on support of Anglican ministry in Mozambique and Angola. Together they made a Lent appeal for financial support for Cabo Delgado in 2023.
Amid persecution, adversity, and fragility, Anglicans in northern Mozambique are promoting interfaith collaboration and gospel values of Christians loving their neighbors. They provide safe spaces for healing from trauma through storytelling and healing of memories. They also integrate peacemaking principles into church life and community outreach.
Mozambican Christians hold onto the hope that the enemies of Christianity ultimately will be defeated by the power of Christ’s Resurrection.
Daniel Sitole is a freelance journalist in Kenya. His stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines in many countries, including Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
