PEMBA, Mozambique: Several beheadings, including of teenagers, have been reported around the restive northern Mozambique town of Palma since it was attacked by militants in March, a charity and local sources said on Friday.
Palma and surrounding areas have been on tenterhooks since militants linked to Daesh launched a raid of unprecedented scale on the town, killing dozens and forcing tens of thousands to flee.
Many sought refuge in nearby Quitunda, a resettlement village next to a heavily guarded gas exploration site operated by French oil giant Total and abandoned days after the raid.
Several bouts of low-key violence have been reported since the militants retreated.
British charity Save the Children on Friday said it was “shocked and appalled” by news this week of two 15-year-old boys being beheaded in Palma on Sunday.
The teenagers were among a group of 15 adults who had left Quitunda in search of food, according to the independent news outlet Carta de Mocambique, which reported the incident.
Two adults were also killed, it added.
“We are appalled and disgusted at this senseless crime,” Save the Children Mozambique country director Chance Briggs said in a statement.
The insurgency is “having a continual, horrific, deadly impact on children,” he said.
“They are being killed, they are being abducted, they are being recruited for use by armed groups.”
One local source in the provincial capital Pemba said relatives in Quitunda had heard of “insurgents” beheading several people on Saturday.
Momade Bachir, who is regularly in touch with family members still stranded around Palma, told AFP that four residents were attacked after they left the town to pick manioc in surrounding fields.
Another three beheaded bodies were found near Pemba that evening, according to Bachir.
Finding food has been difficult since the March 24 attack on Palma and aid agencies have struggled to take in supplies due to security concerns.
The World Food Programme has warned that almost one million people, mostly displaced, faced severe hunger.
Insurgents have been wreaking havoc in Cabo Delgado since 2017.
The fighting has claimed more than 2,800 lives, half of them civilians, according to conflict data tracker ACLED, and displaced around 800,000.
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Beheadings reported in insurgent-hit Mozambique
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Beheadings reported in insurgent-hit Mozambique
- Palma and surrounding areas have been on tenterhooks since militants linked to Daesh launched a raid of unprecedented scale on the town
- British charity Save the Children said it was ‘shocked and appalled’ by news this week of two 15-year-old boys being beheaded in Palma
Russia questions how Trump’s Board of Peace will work with UN Security Council
- The United States is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have joined the board
MOSCOW: Russia questioned on Thursday how US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace would work with the United Nations Security Council, which has served as the fulcrum of collective international peacemaking since the end of World War Two.
Trump first proposed the board in September, when he unveiled his plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza. Later, he said its remit would expand to tackle other conflicts globally — efforts traditionally overseen by the United Nations.
The United States is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have joined the board. The other council members are Russia, China, Britain and France.
“The charter of the Board of Peace defines itself as a new international structure designed to replace ‘mechanisms that have too often proved ineffective’,” Russian foreign ministry official Kirill Logvinov told state news agency TASS.
The board’s mandate never mentions Gaza, Logvinov, the director of the ministry’s international organizations department, added in an interview.
“It is clear that this approach raises questions about how the Board of Peace will coexist with the United Nations and its Security Council, which is the only universally recognized body for maintaining international peace and security.”
He reiterated Russia’s observation that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had not been invited to the board’s meetings so far.
The board’s charter says it will undertake “peace-building functions in accordance with international law.”
Its chairman, Trump, will wield extensive executive power, including the ability to veto decisions and remove members, subject to some constraints.
The UN Security Council’s primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security, the UN says, with its first meeting in London in 1946 though its headquarters are in New York.
Trump first proposed the board in September, when he unveiled his plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza. Later, he said its remit would expand to tackle other conflicts globally — efforts traditionally overseen by the United Nations.
The United States is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have joined the board. The other council members are Russia, China, Britain and France.
“The charter of the Board of Peace defines itself as a new international structure designed to replace ‘mechanisms that have too often proved ineffective’,” Russian foreign ministry official Kirill Logvinov told state news agency TASS.
The board’s mandate never mentions Gaza, Logvinov, the director of the ministry’s international organizations department, added in an interview.
“It is clear that this approach raises questions about how the Board of Peace will coexist with the United Nations and its Security Council, which is the only universally recognized body for maintaining international peace and security.”
He reiterated Russia’s observation that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had not been invited to the board’s meetings so far.
The board’s charter says it will undertake “peace-building functions in accordance with international law.”
Its chairman, Trump, will wield extensive executive power, including the ability to veto decisions and remove members, subject to some constraints.
The UN Security Council’s primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security, the UN says, with its first meeting in London in 1946 though its headquarters are in New York.
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