Survivors speak of “agonising executions” in Muidumbe – VOA

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Survivors speak of “agonising executions” in Muidumbe – VOA

3:58 CAT | 18 Nov 2020

in file CoM

Survivors of the Muidumbe massacre related to VOA on Monday (16-11) the “despair” and “agony” of more than 50 people beheaded on a local football field, seemingly confirming the rumours of mass executions by armed groups in Cabo Delgado .

The executions, reportedly carried out between the 6th and 8th of November, have been denied by the governor of Cabo Delgado, Valige Tauabo.

Last week, several Mozambican and international media outlets reported the kidnapping of 50 people who were later beheaded on a football field in the village of Muatide.

The reported massacre was “vehemently” condemned by, among others, the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who urged the Mozambican authorities to conduct an investigation.

“People are dying,” a high school teacher who survived the massacre and is now a refugee in Mueda, told VOA.

“People are kidnapped from the villages and from their hiding places. or when trying to go and retrieve something (food) from their home. They are soon caught and taken to their execution in the field,” he said.

Another survivor said that several victims were taken from neighbouring villages in Muatide and executed on the village football field.

“These beheadings are happening in Muatide. When the insurgents entered the first day they did not do this, but on the second and third days they took people from the villages to the Muatide camp and executed them,” he added.

The teacher and other people had returned to the village in compliance with the Muidumbe administrator’s demand for the resumption, on December 2, of local authority services suspended in April after the occupation of the village by the insurgents.

“Some of those beheaded I knew by name, others not, but I knew that they lived there. In Muatide, the first person beheaded was a teacher, while in Muambula, some leaders and other people were beheaded,” another survivor claimed.

The news portal Pinnacle News reported that the Muatide massacre had claimed hundreds of victims, and “about 40 beheadings” in other villages, including many children under the age of 15 seized during an initiation rite.

News of the discovery of the dismembered bodies of at least “five adults and 15 minors” in a Muidumbe forest circulated a few days after the insurgents’ latest invasion of the Cabo Delgado district.

According to sources, the group still controls the headquarters village of Muidumbe, and dozens of other villages in the district, as well as Mocímboa da Praia, further north.

Cabo Delgado province has been grappling with insurgent attacks for three years, and the death toll is now estimated at 2,000, including civilians and military personnel. Official figures indicate that the conflict has internally displaced 435,000.

The violence is believed to be perpetrated by groups known locally as Al-Shabab, who reportedly have some affinity with the Islamic State jihadist group, which has in turn already claimed responsibility for several attacks in northern and central districts of Cabo Delgado.

By André Baptista

Source: Voa Portugues