Terror group seeks to establish a caliphate in Northern Mozambique

Islamist terrorists have murdered 12 people Sunday in an attack on a village in Cabo Delgado province in Northern Mozambique. Local press reports state the majority of those killed were women and children who were either hacked to death with machetes, or burned to death when their homes were set ablaze. The terrorist group Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama (Followers of the prophet) — also known as Al-Shabaab but are not believed linked to the Somali group — have killed 20 people in November in a series of attacks on Christian and moderate Muslim villages. Like Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Mozambique Islamists seek to establish a caliphate governed by Sharia law.  AFP reports the attacks have unsettled the government as the Cabo Delgado province is the site of newly discovered oil and gas fields. The US petroleum corporation Anadarko earlier this year temporarily evacuated its workers from newly opened oil fields after the American embassy in Maputo warned of impending terror attacks. .