50 people killed in Northern Mozambqiue

Islamist militants in Mozambique have beheaded more than 50 people at a village in the northern part of the country, local media reports.

The attack was carried out by an Isis-linked group in the village of Muatide in conflict-ridden Cabo Delgado province, spanning several days.

A local news agency said the attackers set fire to several villages and gathered together people they had captured from nearby forests on a single football pitch. The victims were then decapitated and their bodies chopped to pieces, while women from the villages were abducted.

The gas-rich northern Mozambique region has witnessed several brutal attacks.

This involves killings by the Isis-affiliated local group Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo, or simply al-Shabaab locally, though they have no relation to the better-known Somali group.