On November 10, Al Jazeera posted a breathtaking headline: “ISIS-linked attackers behead 50 people in northern Mozambique.” The subhead was equally horrifying: “Witnesses say the assailants herded victims onto a football pitch in the village of Muatide where the killings were carried out.”
In the midst of a pandemic, and in the throes of a highly contested US presidential election, it isn’t surprising to encounter dis-concerting news headlines. But the gruesome description of innocent people “herded” to their death on a soccer field, where they were systematically decapitated and dismembered, seems more suitable to a horror film than a present-day news report.
Despite the declaration of an African branch of ISIS taking credit for the killings and its religious tone, there has been discussion about the cause of the violence. For example, the New York Times and Al Jazeera suggest that poverty and inequality led to the attacks. This is similar to the argument that climate change is the primary source of the genocidal Fulani attacks on Christian villages in Nigeria.
Writing about the beheadings, New York Times journalist Declan Walsh quoted Sam Ratner, a contributing editor at Zitamar News. “While the militants claim to be targeting Christians, in practice they make little distinction between their victims. ISIS propaganda says they burned a Christian village or killed Christian soldiers,” Ratner said. “But on the ground, we’re not seeing a lot of differentiation between Christians and Muslims. They do not appear to be targeting churches in particular, for instance.”
It is true that northeastern Mozambique where the attacks took place is rich an oil rich region, and there is wealth to be gained through massacres and the confiscation of property. There have been attacks on oil company convoys and other petroleum-related entities. Perhaps some of the violence is indeed the work of opportunistic criminal enterprises.
In July, CBN News interviewed Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Mozambique’s Pemba Diocese. He described the world’s response to the atrocities that are taking place in his country and across the world as “indifference.”