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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Child rights |
|---|---|
| located: | Mozambique |
| editor: | Bob Koigi |
The Islamic State-linked Mozambican militants have struck again, this time unleashing terror in the Northern Province of Cabo Delgado by beheading children as young as 11 years, according to a recently released statement by aid agency Save the Children.
While the organisation didn’t specify who was behind the beheadings, the area in which executions have been taking place and their style bore all the hallmarks of the insurgent group.
Mothers have given chilling accounts of how their homes were attacked and how they watched from hiding spots as their children were hacked to death.
The insurgency in Cabo Delgado has now seen close to 670,000 people displaced and over 2,600 die in the conflict with almost half of them being civilians.
Children continue to pay the ultimate price with an estimated 250,000 of them having been displaced and now out of school. This, coming at a time when the area is yet to recover from the 2019 Cyclone Kenneth and numerous floods that have decimated livelihoods.
With global attention focused on tackling Coronavirus, Mozambique has been forgotten by the international community with children now becoming soft targets for the militants as they advance their cause forcefully.
The United States has committed to send its military personnel to train Mozambican soldiers to counter the militants.
The international community must join the US in offering the much needed humanitarian support as the crisis now threatens to spiral out of control with spillover effects that could have far reaching implications in neighbouring countries, while threatening to disrupt peace and order in the region.
The Mozambican children’s right to life, education, good health and security must be prioritised in any intervention by the Mozambican government and the international community. The world owes the children a duty of care.
Image: The Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP).
