ISIS-Linked Militants Burn Historic Church in Mozambique

MEZA, Mozambique — The flames rose before dawn, swallowing nearly eight decades of history in a matter of minutes.

On April 30, ISIS-linked militants stormed the Catholic parish of St. Louis de Montfort in northern Mozambique, torching the church, the priest’s residence and a kindergarten attached to the mission compound. By sunrise, one of the region’s oldest Catholic institutions had been reduced to charred rubble.

Residents in Meza, a remote community in Cabo Delgado Province, were reportedly forced to watch as the attackers carried out the destruction before disappearing into nearby forests — a grim reminder that Mozambique’s long-running insurgency remains far from over.

“This was a true scene of terror,” Bishop António Juliasse Ferreira Sandramo of the Diocese of Pemba told Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity known as ACN.

“Houses, infrastructure — everything was destroyed. Our historic parish is now in ruins.”

No deaths were reported in the attack, largely because the Cameroonian missionaries assigned to the parish were away at the time. But church leaders say the psychological toll on local Christians is profound.

The assault has renewed international attention on Cabo Delgado, the gas-rich northern province where Islamist militants have waged a brutal insurgency since 2017. More than 6,300 people have been killed, according to conflict monitors, while nearly one million others have fled their homes amid repeated attacks on villages, schools and places of worship.

The group responsible is widely identified as a local extremist faction often referred to as Al-Shabab — distinct from the Somali organization of the same name — which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province.

In recent years, churches have increasingly become symbolic targets.

Archbishop Inácio Saure, president of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique, condemned the attack in unusually direct terms, warning against efforts to fracture the country’s fragile interfaith coexistence.

“Stop the killings and destruction in the name of religion,” he said. “Muslims are our beloved brothers and sisters, not our enemies.”

Mozambique has long been regarded as a country where Christians and Muslims lived side by side with relative harmony. But the insurgency in Cabo Delgado has tested that balance, fueling fear and deepening instability across the region.

Despite the destruction, church leaders insist the militants have failed in one respect: breaking the faith of the community.

“For nine years we have watched chapels and churches burn,” Bishop Juliasse said. “But the faith of God’s people will never burn.”

International Catholic organizations, including ACN, say humanitarian and trauma-recovery efforts are continuing in the region. Yet with violence escalating again, questions are mounting over whether the Mozambican government and the international community can contain a conflict that has already devastated an entire generation.

(Sources: Christian Today, ACN, Vatican News, National Catholic Reporter, EWTN, The Catholic Herald)