Nov. 12 (UPI) — The United Nations on Wednesday condemned reports of massacres by non-state armed groups in villages in northern Mozambique.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by the reports including the beheading and kidnapping of women and children in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province and condemned the “wanton brutality,” spokesman Stephan Dujarric said.
“The secretary-general urges the country’s authorities to conduct an investigation into these incidents and to hold those responsible to account. He calls on all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law,” Dujarric said.
A witness to the attacks told CNN that insurgents cut off victims’ heads and left them in ditches on the side of the road.
Mozambican police announced to state media that more than 50 people had been gathered on a soccer field in town where they were beheaded.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of neighboring Zimbabwe also condemned the attacks on Twitter.
“I am deeply shocked by recent reports of terrorist activity in Mozambique. These acts of barbarity must be stamped out whenever they are found,” he wrote.
