Beheadings and Beach Resorts
Christians in northern Mozambique face violent persecution at the hands of Islamist militants. At the same time, just a few kilometers away, tourists enjoy luxury holidays on pristine beaches, unaware of the suffering unfolding outside their resorts.
Heike Claudia du Toit
Apr 21, 2025 - 2:21 PM
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The Forgotten Crucifixion of Mozambique’s Christians
While tourists sip cocktails on white sand beaches under the Mozambican sun, just a few kilometers north, Christian families are fleeing for their lives or, far worse, being hunted down, beheaded, or forced to convert to Islam whilst staring down the barrel of a gun. Welcome to Cabo Delgado: Africa’s most underreported slaughtering field.
Since 2017, northern Mozambique has descended into a nightmare of Islamist violence, where being a Christian is increasingly a death sentence. What began as a local insurgency by a group calling itself Ansar al-Sunna has evolved into a full-fledged ISIS affiliate, Islamic State Mozambique (IS-M), waging a brutal religious war. Entire villages have been destroyed, with many communities displaced. Churches have been torched. Believers have been beheaded in public squares. Destruction seems like a too timid word to use when describing the acts of these terrorists.
A War Against Faith
This is not just political instability or civil unrest as we have come to know in other countries; this is a deliberate war on Christians.
The militants use tactics identical to ISIS in Iraq and Syria:
- Christians are identified and separated during village raids. Those who refuse to convert to Islam are often executed on the spot, frequently by beheading.
- Churches are burned, often with worshippers still inside.
- Women and girls are abducted, forced into marriage, or into sexual slavery.
- Boys are kidnapped and trained as child soldiers.
- Villagers are displaced in masses, fleeing into forests, hiding in ruins, or walking for days to find safety.
According to Open Doors, Mozambique has now entered the top 40 worst countries for Christian persecution. Entire regions have been emptied of their Christian population. In 2024 alone, over 1,600 Christian properties were attacked or destroyed. The death toll since 2017 exceeds 3,000 civilians, and over 1 million people, many of them Christians, have been displaced.
In the last 12 months, IS-M militants carried out a series of coordinated attacks in Mucojo, Meluco, Macomia, and Quissanga.
- In Mucojo, 25 Mozambican soldiers were killed in a surprise assault.
- A bus driver in Meluco was ambushed, abducted, and later killed. The attackers left behind letters declaring war on Christians, demanding that non-Muslims convert to Islam or pay a religious tax (jizya), similar to ISIS’s methods in the Levant.
- In Macomia, two civilians were executed after an early morning raid involving child soldiers. Villagers fled into the forests, while their homes and churches were burned.
- In Quissanga, militants attacked a military outpost, killing at least two members of the armed forces before disappearing into the dense terrain.
These are not isolated incidents. IS-M now carries out dozens of attacks per month, often with military precision, which indicates that the militants have received advanced military training. The violence has destabilized the entire north of Mozambique, and the government, despite help from Rwanda and regional forces, struggles to keep the militants contained.
While Christians Die, Tourism Flourishes
Herein lies the gut-wrenching irony: while Christian villagers are executed for their faith, tourists are sipping cocktails at beachfront resorts just an hour or two away.
Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado, remains a tourist gateway to the stunning Quirimbas Archipelago. Islands like Ibo, Matemo, and Quilálea boast high-end eco-lodges, scuba diving retreats, and luxury sailing. From these resorts, guests can watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean, unaware and unconcerned that Christian children are being beheaded just a few dozen kilometers inland.
Imagine vacationing in Iraq during the fall of Mosul. That is what’s happening here. Mozambique is the only place in the world where a Christian genocide and beachfront honeymoon packages co-exist.
Why does no one speak out, you might wonder. Part of the answer lies in media blackout and fatigue. Mozambique is a poor, geopolitically quiet country. There are no cameras in the villages, no NGOs with the clout to demand action, no social media hashtags to elevate their suffering. And perhaps, most disturbingly, because the victims are poor, rural Christians who don’t fit the Liberal West’s narrative of the “worthy victim.”
The Cost of Silence
This cannot continue as it has for the last eight years. Churches across the world must rise in prayer and protest against the atrocities of ISIS. Mission agencies must tell the stories of the persecuted brothers and sisters, and those yet to become victims. Journalists must uncover the truth. And tourists must ask themselves: Can we tan on blood-soaked soil without conscience?
Christian persecution in Mozambique is a slow-motion crucifixion happening as we speak. The blood of the saints cries out from Cabo Delgado.
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Heike Claudia du Toit
South African Content Writer | Linguistics Honors Candidate