An Italian nun was shot dead by Islamist insurgents in Mozambique on Monday, 6 September, according to local reports.
Sister Maria de Coppi, an 82-year-old Comboni Missionary, was shot in the head during an attack on the Chipene Mission in Memba, diocese of Nacala, in the province of Nampula. Another three nuns and two priests who were at the mission managed to escape, along with other staff and students of the boarding school.
During the attack, which lasted several hours, the entire mission was ransacked and set on fire. “Everything was destroyed”, says Bishop Alberto Vera, of the Diocese of Nacala, during a telephone conversation with the Portuguese office of Aid to the Church in Need.
This attack confirms recent reports that the Islamist insurgency which began in the province of Cabo Delgado, in the far north of Mozambique, has spread south to neighbouring Nampula. According to Mozambican press the attack on the mission took place days after government forces left the area.
Despite some attacks against Christian mission buildings, and the destruction of Church property, the insurgency has not been marked by specifically anti-Christian acts until now.
Bishop Vera believes that in this case, as well, the terrorists were actually seeking international attention. “The criminals stole the tabernacle and vandalised the sacristy. They were searching for something, probably money. This is a major coup, because there were Italian priests, a Spanish nun, two Italian nuns and an African sister from Togo. So, I think they were looking for international attention, but I don’t think that it was specifically aimed at the Church,” he told ACN.
The increased terrorist action has caused a new wave of refugees in the province, which lacks the infrastructure to host large numbers of internally displaced people, leading many to seek help with relatives in other parts of the country.
The first terrorist attacks to take place in Mozambique occurred in 2017, in Cabo Delgado. Since that time close to four thousand people have been killed by insurgents who often resort to tactics such as decapitations.
More or less evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, the north of Mozambique has a greater concentration of the latter, and is exposed to the influence of terrorist organisations operating along the coast of East Africa.
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