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The United Nations Secretary General has called on Mozambican authorities to investigate escalating violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, where armed groups have killed dozens of people, including by beheading them, in recent weeks.
The escalation of violence between security forces and the armed group locally known as “al-Shabab” in northern Mozambique has resulted in the killings of dozens of people and caused untold suffering to civilians.
In October, militia groups composed of army veterans stepped up counterattacks against al-Shabab positions in the Miudumbe and Mueda districts, killing over 200 members of the group.
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Amnesty International, which has been documenting the violence in Cabo Delgado since 2017, when it started, including calling for an independent and impartial investigation into torture and other grave violations committed by security forces, welcomed the call for investigation.
Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa said in a statement that “for too long the international community has ignored the horrors unfolding in Cabo Delgado.”
Mwananyanda added: “Our calls for accountability for appalling crimes under international law and human rights violations including torture, dismemberment and extrajudicial executions, have been ignored by the Mozambican authorities,” said
“Meanwhile people in the region continue to live in fear of attacks by armed opposition groups, as well as Mozambican armed forces who have committed human rights violations in the name of combatting militants.
“The world cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the suffering of civilians in Cabo Delgado. After the Rwandan genocide, the UN called its own failure to act a ‘sin of omission’; what we are seeing in Mozambique is a sign that history is repeating itself and civilians are once again paying the price for the international community’s inaction. We call on the UN to act by urgently creating an independent international mechanism to address the ongoing crimes under international law and human rights violations.”
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