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MOZAMBIQUE

OMR researcher João Feijó explained to ACN what happens to abducted Christian women who don’t convert to Islam. He said: “They have to do anything they are told to do.” Interviewees in the report explained that they had to attend forced “education” sessions, which included ideological lectures and Qur’anic instructions. 79 The women are taught how to become “a good Islamic mother.” 80 A religious Sister in Mozambique spent more than three weeks as a captive of jihadists and upon her release she raised the alarm about the hundreds of children who were being abducted, many of them forced to become either child soldiers or child brides. 81 Father Kwiriwi Fonseca, a priest ministering to families displaced by Islamist violence, told ACN about the Sister’s ordeal ― and relayed her stark warning that young people are being coerced by militant extremists.

The Islamist group Ansar Al-Sunna began a violent insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique in 2017. 74 They have links to Daesh (ISIS). 75 According to the UN, since October 2017 the conÁict has killed more than 2,600 people and displaced upwards of 700,000. The extremists have frequently kidnapped young girls, including Christians, to be used as sex slaves and forced to marry the Àghters. 76 According to a report released by Rural Environment Observatory (OMR), a think tank based in Mozambique, abducted Christian girls are put under pressure to convert to Islam and told if they refuse they will be used as slaves. 77 The report states insurgents have abducted more than 1,000 women and girls and forced many into sexual relations with their Àghters. 78

20 | HEAR HER CRIES