The UK government has condemned reports of beheading of at least 50 people in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
On Twitter on Tuesday, Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said, "The UK is appalled by reports of the beheading of dozens of civilians in Cabo Delgado province."
"This is part of a pattern of escalating attacks in north-east Mozambique. We remain in close contact with the Mozambican authorities to tackle the root causes of conflict."
More than 50 people are reported to have been beheaded during three days of violence in northern Mozambique.
Islamist insurgents attacked villages in two districts of the Cabo Delgado province, killing people, abducting women and burning homes. Many of the killings took place during a mass execution in a football field.
Since the Islamist insurgency began more than three years ago, hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Professor Adrian Nuvunga, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development - a civil society organization working on youth, leadership, democracy and development policy in Mozambique - says the killings seem to have been a terror tactic aimed at stopping local people from banding together to defend their villages.
"Increasingly veterans are taking part in protecting their districts so that seems to be creating further anger (in) the insurgents... They want to instigate fear (in) local villagers in order to gain control."
