Children beheaded in Mozambique
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Aid agency Save the Children says militants are beheading children as young as 11 in Mozambique as part of an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced many more from their homes
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ZAMBIA
Cabo Delgado
Gas fields
MOZAMBIQUE 
MALAWI
200km 125 miles
Maputo
ESWATINI
TANZANIA
Mocimboa da Praia
SOUTH AFRICA 
ZIMBABWE
INDIAN OCEAN
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INSURGENCY
More than 2,600 people killed in Cabo Delgado province and 670,000 displaced since insurgency began in 2017

Insurgency rooted in grievances of Mozambique’s poorest province – locals say they do not benefit from some of world’s biggest gas reserves
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WHO ARE THE MILITANTS?
Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama (ASWJ) – known locally as Al-Shabab, but unconnected to
Al Qaeda-linked Somali group of same name

Believed to have up to 800 fighters. Staged first attack in 2017 and declared allegiance
to so-called Islamic State group in 2019

Conscripts young people to join group, killing them if they refuse
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U.S. INVOLVEMENT
Mar 10: ASWJ and its leader, Abu Yasir Hassan, named Specially Designated
Global Terrorists
Mar 15: U.S. Special Forces start training Mozambican marines to repel insurgency
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Sources: Save the Children, U.S. State Department
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