JOHANNESBURG: Islamic militants who carry out a brutal rebellion in North Mozambique have kidnapped more than 600 women and children for the past three years, said Human Rights Watch said in Tuesday’s report.
“A armed group associated with the Islamic State (ISIS) since 2018 kidnapped and enslave more than 600 women and daughters in the North Cabo Province of Mozambique,” said the rights group in a statement.
Some have been released by Mozambican and foreign forces deployed this year to help extinguish violence that have caused chaos in the region since October 2017.
But some are still missing, said the rights watchdog.
Women and girls are kidnapped during raids in cities and villages by militants known locally as al-Shabab, even though they do not have a known connection with the group with the same name in Somalia.
The group forced young women and women to “marry” their fighters “who enslave and harass their sexual” while some have been sold to foreign militants for between $ 600 and $ 1,800, he said.
“An unknown number of women and girls remains in captivity in Mozambique, facing a terrible violation every day, including slavery and rape by the Al-Shabab fighters,” said Mausus, Director of Africa HRW.
HRW based its report on investigations including interviews with former kidnappers or their relatives, security sources and government officials.
The riots that have disturbed the northern region of Gas-rich Mozambique have claimed at least 3,578 lives, including 1,575 civilians, according to US-based conflict tracking organizations, acled.
More than 800,000 have been moved, according to the Government and the United Nations Agency.
Since July, more than 3,100 African soldiers, Europe and the US have been deployed to Cabo Delgado Province to extinguish riots.