ISIS-affiliated militants beheaded over 30 Christians in northern Mozambique and destroyed at least seven churches while displacing over 50,000 people from Chiure district in recent weeks. The chilling attacks, announced by the militant group through photos and statements, draw attention to the growing persecution of Christians in Mozambique, as the Islamic militant group advocates for the killing of Christians and pushes farther south in the country.
The Islamic State Mozambique Province (ISMP), the militant group responsible for these attacks, released 20 graphic photographs detailing the beheadings, shootings and arsons committed against Christians and village civilians during their attacks. The militants conducted the killings and ravages in the Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces in the northern area of Mozambique. While the country is predominately Christian, the northern region is predominately Muslim, causing Christian communities living in this region to be particularly targeted by the extremist group.
According to MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), ISMP has also released statements claiming responsibility on certain slaughters. On Sept. 25, the group reported they had beheaded two Christians in the Chiure-Velho village. The ISMP later took responsibility of a Sept. 26 attack, which left a Christian local shot and killed. A Sept. 28 attack left four Christians dead in Macomia Town. Another Christian was beheaded in the Macomia district the next day. Recent attacks included church burnings in Nacocha, Nacussa, Minhanha and Nakioto village. Over 100 homes were destroyed in Nakioto village.
ISMP’s terrorist activities, active in six of Mozambique’s districts, has reached farther south throughout the years. ISMP mainly operates in Cabo Delgado.
To counter the insurgency, Mozambique renewed a military alliance with neighboring country Rwanda on Aug. 27. Under the Status of Force Agreement, the Rwandan Defense Force is to continue its deployment in Cabo Delgado, where it has been fighting insurgency since 2021.
Since 2017, over 6,000 people have been killed by ISMP, and over a million in the northern areas of the country have been displaced.
ISMP, whose aim is to create a strict Islamic state, sees Christians as “symbols of resistance,” which causes them to become targets, according to Open Doors, a Christian organization serving Christians worldwide.
The Islamic militant group’s slaughter of Christians included a 2024 campaign called “Kill Them Wherever You Find Them.”
Open Door’s World Watch List 2025 ranks the nation as the 37th most difficult country to be a Christian. The country rose from the 39th to 37th most dangerous in a year. Some 100 churches and Christian buildings were attacked or closed down in the 2025 reporting year in comparison to 10 in the previous year.
Open Doors reports that church youth workers are more likely to be harmed for speaking out against cartels and trying to guard people from recruitment, and converts from Islam to Christianity are often persecuted by their family, who divorce converts or force marriages on converts. Christians can lose inheritances or custody of their children.
