Mozambique (International Christian Concern) According to military sources, suspected Islamic extremists decapitated a pastor in Cabo Delgado last Wednesday, and forced his wife to carry his head to the police station.
Zimbabwe Daily reported the pastor’s wife told police that “suspected Islamic State-linked insurgents intercepted the pastor in a field, decapitated him and then handed over his head to his wife and ordered her to inform the authorities”.
The monstrous act took place amidst a four-year long insurgency ravaging the country, leaving over 3,000 people dead and almost 100,000 displaced.
The violence is driven by a terrorist group calling itself Al-Shabab (though not linked to the Somali terror group). They seem to be loosely affiliated with Islamic State, though the connection is somewhat tenuous.
In March of this year, Al-Shabab killed dozens in a coordinated attack on Cabo Delgado’s capital of Palma, an area where believers are often kidnapped, forced to flee, or killed at the hands of Islamic extremists.
In a statement after this attack, IS boasted that its affiliate had killed dozens of security personnel—and Christians, including westerners from what the statement termed “Crusader nations.”
Please pray that the Lord would provide comfort to the wife of this slain pastor, and that He would heal her of the trauma she has had to endure. Pray for peace in Mozambique, as well as for the hearts of those who persecute the church, that the love of Jesus would bring them from darkness to light.
This article originally appeared here.