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”.
Source: International Christian Concern
Let us pray.
- 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 that this tragic and violent death will not be in vain, ask the Lord to somehow bring spiritual good.
- 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.
