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(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic parishioners in Mozambique reported the stories of Catholic martyrs who were killed by Muslim extremists in recent years.
ACI Africa reports that Catholics of Chipene in Nampulam, a province in northern Mozambique, recently told a delegation of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM) how Catholics were murdered during the ongoing insurgency by militant Islamists in the region.
The parishioners, who remained anonymous for security reasons, recalled that on September 5, 2022, Islamic insurgents murdered a man named Francisco Massaya in Nacutho in front of a chapel. The next day, the Muslim extremists arrived in Chipene and murdered multiple people, vandalized a mission hospital and a church, and set multiple buildings and cars on fire.
READ: 11 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Mozambique
Among those murdered by the Islamists was Sister Maria De Coppi, a Comboni missionary nun who served malnourished and orphaned children.
“We believe that her witness and faith will not be forgotten by us: she was a catechist and teacher who did not give up spreading the Gospel in all the difficult times of war, religious persecution, and in places where the Gospel had not yet reached,” the parishioners’ statement said regarding Sister Maria.
“On the third day, the insurgents passed through Nantaca and met a man named Silvano Valentim. They asked him what religion he professed, and he said he was a Christian. He was next to his aunt, they told him to sit down, and he was beheaded,” the report by the parishioners recounted.
According to the parishioners, in Canyunya-Naheco, the insurgents set fire to 190 houses, including a Catholic school and chapel.
When the Islamists arrived in Tataulo, they asked the locals to separate into groups of men and women, as well as Muslims and Christians. “When the first three Christians bravely came forward, they were tied up and beheaded,” the parishioners’ statement read.
“While they were killing the first, named Francisco Rimo, baptized and married in the Church with nine children, they put the book of the liturgy (Masu Apwiya) on his chest,” the report continued. “The second, known as Celestino Santos Mitupiya, was baptized, married in a church, father of seven children, and a catechist, and had the Bible placed on his chest. The third, named Silva António, was a catechumen and father of two children, who were given the catechism of the third stage.”
ACI Africa reports that, “The parishioners told their Bishops that those who died had planted a seed of witness to the faith in the Church in Mozambique.”
READ: Bishop recounts Islamic terrorists’ ‘gruesome attack’ on nun shot in head, beheaded Christians
They thanked the Mozambique bishops for “always being with us to strengthen our faith.”
After their visit to the war-torn region, the CEM bishops said in a statement that they remain concerned about “the difficult and tragic situation of suffering that the conflict is causing in the local population.”
They stressed their commitment to helping and serving the displaced, “as it [the Church] has been doing since the first hours, despite the difficulties of recent times in collaborating with the local structures in charge of managing the reception camps.”
The organization OpenDoors, which tracks persecution of Christians worldwide, ranks the persecution level of Mozambique “very high,” especially in the north of the country where Muslim groups have been trying to establish an Islamic state “and Christians are often targeted as symbols of resistance to this extremist ideology.”
“In addition, Christians are often caught in the crossfire of the ongoing conflict between government forces and jihadist groups, making them even more vulnerable to violence and displacement,” OpenDoors states in its report.
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