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Children as young as 11 beheaded by ISIS in Mozambique
Children as young as 11 have been targeted by violence and beheaded in northeast Mozambique during an ISIS insurgency in the region, the charity Save the Children said on Tuesday.
The UK-based aid organization said it was “outraged and deeply saddened” by reports that children had been targeted in the conflict in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province.
The violence has claimed the lives of 2,600 people in the east African nation – half of them civilians – and displaced 670,000, according to Save the Children.
One mother, whose name was withheld to protect her identity, told the charity her 12-year-old son was beheaded as she hid with her three other children.
“That night our village was attacked and houses were burned,” she said.
“We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We couldn’t do anything because we would be killed too,” the mother added.
A second mother said she had been unable to bury her son who was killed by armed men after she had to leave her home for her own safety.
“After my 11-year-old son was killed, we understood that it was no longer safe to stay in my village. We fled to my father’s house in another village, but a few days later the attacks started there too,” she said.
The charity said the situation had seriously deteriorated in the past 12 months with an escalation of attacks.
The humanitarian crisis in the region has been exacerbated by a series of floods in 2020 and Cyclone Kenneth which struck northern Mozambique a year earlier.
“Reports of attacks on children sicken us to our core,” Chance Briggs, Save the Children’s country director in Mozambique, said.
“A major concern for us is that the needs of displaced children and their families in Cabo Delgado far outweigh the resources available to support them.
“Nearly a million people are facing severe hunger as a direct result of this conflict, including displaced people and host communities.”
Insurgents, known locally as Al-Shabaab, have staged a series of attacks in Cabo Delgado since 2017 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organization in 2019.
They have been accused of beheadings and desecration of corpses.
Government forces, which have been bolstered by private military companies, have also been accused by rights groups of atrocities that amount to war crimes.
India says a fugitive drug-trafficking kingpin accused of smuggling heroin and methamphetamine from Afghanistan into India has been deported from Turkey and brought back to the country.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that Navpreet Singh, also known as “Nav,” was deported from Turkey after Indian authorities tracked him down.
Shah said Singh had obtained Turkish citizenship using the fake identity “Navab Virk” and continued to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine from Afghanistan to India.
The 34-year-old, a native of Punjab, had been wanted in several narcotics cases and was on the run for more than two years. Indian authorities allege that he headed an international narcotics syndicate whose operations in India were managed by his cousin, Prabhdeep Singh.
Prabhdeep Singh, also known as “Harry,” was extradited from Azerbaijan to India in May in connection with a case involving the seizure of 358 kilograms of heroin in 2021.
India submitted its request for Navpreet Singh’s extradition to Turkish authorities in 2023-24, according to officials familiar with the case.
Shah described Singh’s deportation as a “historic milestone” and said the Indian government was committed to dismantling drug-trafficking networks.
The Indian Home Ministry says 288 fugitives from 36 countries have been brought back to India between 2019 and August 2026 as part of efforts to pursue wanted criminals abroad.
Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) and Tajikistan-based Pamir Energy Company have signed a cooperation agreement to provide electricity to border districts of Badakhshan province.
The agreement was signed in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, by Abdul Haq Hamkar, Chief Executive Officer of DABS, and Amir Khan Rahim, President of Pamir Energy.
The agreement is aimed at expanding cooperation, improving electricity supply and creating the necessary conditions for providing power services to residents of Badakhshan’s border districts.
On the sidelines of the signing ceremony, the two sides also discussed extending a 110-kilovolt power transmission line to Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan.
Hamkar emphasized the importance of the project in strengthening the province’s electricity infrastructure.
Pamir Energy said it would share relevant proposals with DABS following technical assessments.
In his speech, Hassan emphasized the importance of mutual respect, dialogue, economic cooperation and joint development between Afghanistan and countries in the region.
On the sidelines of the forum, the Afghan ambassador met with Anton Borisovich Doronin, Minister of Economic Development of Russia’s Stavropol region. The two discussed ways to expand trade, investment and economic cooperation.
Hassan also met with a number of Afghan businessmen and representatives of the Afghan community in Russia, listening to their concerns and suggestions.
He assured them that the Afghan embassy would provide necessary support and cooperation in addressing their concerns.
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