871122E TERRORISTS BEHEAD MEMBERS OF LOCAL MILITIA
Maputo, 25 Nov (AIM) – Islamist terrorists killed and beheaded five members of a local militia in Montepuez district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on Wednesday according to a report in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
This militia call themselves “naparamas”- the same name used by a peasant force that fought in alliance with the Mozambican army against the apartheid-backed rebels of Renamo in parts of Nampula and Zambezia provinces in the late 1980s.
Just like the original naparamas, the new version claims its magical rituals make its members invulnerable to bullets. And, also like the original version, the magic does not work.
The leader of the first naparamas, Manuel Antonio, died in a hail of Renamo bullets in a clash in 1990 in Zambezia.
This time, according to “Mediafax”, about 20 youths clashed with the jihadists in dense bush in the Nairoto area of Montepuez. There was said to be “a tough combat”, but, despite their rituals, five of them were beheaded, and grisly photographs of their bodies have been circulated. The naparamas recovered the bodies of their fallen comrades, and took them to Nanhupo, about seven kilometres from Nairoto, where funerals were held on Thursday.
The believers in naparama magic interpret the beheadings as caused by a failure to carry out the rituals correctly.
The Montepuez naparamas are an example of local youths fighting against the jihadists, by working with the armed forces, or by forming their own militias.
(AIM)
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