Cabo Delgado is experiencing another wave of attacks, aggravating the humanitarian and security crisis faced in northern Mozambique. According to the Mozambique Times, insurgents killed at least four people and burnt houses on Friday 08 May 2026. The attack took place at around 4 p.m. in the village of Namacuili, in the far south of the Metoro administrative post, about 40 kilometres from the district headquarters of Ancuabe.
“The attacked village borders Chiúre, and they did not leave a single house standing,” a local source quoted in the news report said. “First, they killed the people they found in the village and then burned the houses.”
The previous week, another attack took place in the Minheune area, where the insurgents set fire to the building of an historic Catholic church. Dedicated to Saint Louis de Montfort and built in 1946, the church had been an important landmark for the Catholic presence in northern Mozambique, which is majority Muslim.
Sharing her account with the Vatican News, Comboni Sister Malnati says on the afternoon of Thursday, April 30, militants of Ahlu al-Sunna wa al-Jama’a — a local group affiliated with Islamic State (IS) attacked the village of Meza, in northern Cabo Delgado province. “They set the village structures on fire,” the Sister recounted, still shaken. “Fortunately, the fathers were warned in time and managed to leave Meza before the terrorists arrived.”
A few days after the incident, the Islamic State terrorist organisation reportedly claimed responsibility for the church attack, releasing images of the large building engulfed in flames. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, or ACLED, an independent watchdog group that monitors global conflicts, on 01 May, the Islamic State-Mozambique claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the papal charity, Aid to the Church in Need, the parish of St. Louis de Montfort is currently served by Cameroonian missionaries, who fortunately were not present when the terrorists arrived.
“The missionaries are safe, but the community remains in shock even after the attackers left the scene at nightfall,” Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba told the organisation. He highlighted that the local Christians need encouragement from the wider Church. “We ask for attention and solidarity for the victims of Meza. For nine years, we have watched the insurgents burn chapels and churches in the Diocese of Pemba. But the faith of God’s people will never burn, everyday it is rebuilt.”
The Mozambique Times reports that the Islamic Community of Mozambique has issued a statement condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with the Christian communities whose place of worship was burned.
When Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Parolin visited Mozambique in December 20205, Bishop Juliasse shared the destruction and devastation resulting from the decades long insurgency in Cabo Delgado. He revealed that since the insurgency began in October 2017, at least 117 churches and chapels had been destroyed in the Diocese of Pemba, including 23 in 2025 alone.
