What is being called a “silent genocide” in Africa has reportedly included ISIS-aligned forces beheading Christians in Mozambique.
“The Islamic State – Mozambique Province (ISMP) recently released 20 photos boasting of four attacks on ‘Christian villages’ in the Chiure district, in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, according to MEMRI,” Fox News reported. “The images also allegedly depict the beheadings of a member of what the jihadists consider ‘infidel militias’ and two Christian civilians. Rampaging jihadist groups celebrated the killings.”
Islamic State Mozambique Province fighters allegedly captured and beheaded six Christians in the village of Natocua in the Ancuabe district of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province on July 22, according to MEMRI.
The U.S. State Department designated ISMP as a foreign terrorist organization in 2021.
“What we see in Africa today is a kind of silent genocide or silent, brutal, savage war that is occurring in the shadows and all too often ignored by the international community,” MEMRI Vice President Alberto Miguel Fernandez stated to Fox News Digital. “The fact that jihadist groups are in a position to take over not one, not two, but several countries in Africa – take over the whole country or most of several countries – is dangerous. It’s very dangerous for the national security of the United States, let alone the security of the poor people who are there – Christians or Muslims or whoever they are.”
“The goal is eliminating Christian communities,” he continued. “Yes. Completely. Basically with these jihadist groups, they push down from safe havens that they have; they want to eliminate all the Christians in that area, take that over and keep pushing, keep pushing as far as they can go. Non-Christians, say, the Muslim population … are given a choice: either join us or you too will face killing and annihilation. Christians, of course, are not going to be asked to join; Christians are going to be targeted and destroyed.”
Fernandez has previously served as director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department, as well as Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) at the State Department.
The United Nations reported that there was mass displacement of citizens occurring, but did not specify who was responsible, stating, “According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), attacks by armed groups between 20 and 28 July triggered the displacement of at least 46,667 people across the districts of Chiúre, Ancuabe and Muidumbe. Chiúre was the hardest hit, with more than 42,000 people uprooted – over half of them children.”
“I’m no fan of the United Nations in general, but I think what they’re doing is kind of the lowest common denominator,” Fernandez said. “It’s kind of easy to be vague like that. The fact that some of this and some of the worst of it is happening because of a deep anti-Christian animus, hatred of Christians, religiously-based hatred of Christians is something that the UN usually doesn’t like to talk about.”
Passionist missionary Father Kwiriwi Fonseca in Mozambique sent a message saying, “All the newly displaced mentioned having fled because of direct attacks on their villages, involving looting, arson, kidnappings, and selective murders … many Christians are suffering. Some chapels have also been burned, as have their houses. The social projects no longer work, and the people are in despair.”