Islamist Attacks Sweep Africa

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MUATIDE, Mozambique (ChurchMilitant.com) - Islamists are on a deadly rampage across Africa.

The most recent incident occurred on Friday in northern Mozambique where at least 50 people were beheaded and dismembered by Muslim terrorists.

Bernardino Rafael, commander-general of Mozambique's police, described the scene.

"They burned the houses then went after the population who had fled to the woods and started with their macabre actions," said Rafael.

Al Jazeera and other news agencies report that victims were herded onto a soccer field, decapitated and dismembered. The brutality of the murders made it difficult to identify precisely how many individuals were killed.

Boko Haram Activities

Meanwhile, across the continent, in Cameroon, Boko Haram jihadis are using women and children as suicide bombers to attack schools. As of the end of October, 60 schools on the border with Nigeria have been closed because of the danger. Since January, the area has endured at least three attacks a week.

Cameroon is a predominantly Christian nation. In the last two months, 13 schools have been burned, 200 people captured for ransom and a multitude of civilians abducted.

Jihad Watch says the purpose of Boko Haram's attacks is to establish an Islamic caliphate. Based in northeastern Nigeria, the group's activities range over Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Boko Haram is the group responsible for kidnapping 276 mostly Christian female students in 2014. It is also notorious for abducting children as young as 5 years old and forcing them to serve in the military.

In September, Voice of America reported that Boko Haram was stepping up its so-called recruitment of children.

"Boko Haram has long engaged in mass abduction of schoolgirls, sexual enslavement of women and the mass murder of innocent civilians," according to Voice of America.

Cardinal Responds to Terrorist Attacks

When a Tunisian Muslim murdered three Catholics at Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, France on Nov. 2, Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, strongly condemned the attack.

"Unfortunately, we Africans know this too well. The barbarians are always the enemies of peace. The West, today France, must understand this. Let us pray," Sarah tweeted.

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