Mozambique’s Defence Minister, Jaime Neto has said that, a video showing people dressed in army uniform beating and killing a naked pregnant woman was doctored.
He added that the culprits had been identified and would be punished.
The defence ministry had promised to investigate the video which caused outrage after it was circulated on social media. The video was said to have been filmed in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province, where government troops are battling militant Islamists.
The militants are known as al-Shabab, and have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group. They have carried out a series of attacks on villages and towns in the area over the past three years, leaving more than 1,500 people dead and at least 250,000 homeless.
Government forces have been accused of human rights abuses while trying to put down the insurgency.
Several rights groups shared the two-minute-long clip of the alleged killing of the woman on Monday 14th September.
In the video, men in army uniform beat the woman they refer to as “al-Shabab”. Four different gunmen then shoot her in the back a total of 36 times with a variety of Kalashnikov rifles and a PKM-style machine gun as she tries to flee.
The defence ministry condemned the footage as “horrifying” and said it would carry out an investigation to establish whether it was authentic.
Speaking on a local television station, Mr Neto said the video had been edited by “malicious people” to vilify the image of the military.
He did not give further details, but said the people responsible for creating the video would be paraded in front of the public and punished.
Troops would continue with operations to restore peace in the region, Mr Neto added.
Several rights groups have condemned the atrocity carried out in the video. Chief amongst them is rights watchdog, Amnesty International, which called for an independent probe into the killing of the pregnant woman.
The group also said it had analysed and verified videos showing attempted beheadings, torture and other ill treatment of prisoners, the dismemberment of alleged fighters and possible extrajudicial executions.
“This horrendous video is yet another gruesome example of the gross human rights violations and merciless killings taking place in Cabo Delgado by the Mozambican security forces,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa.
The Mozambique government however denied the allegations, saying the insurgents were known to “impersonate soldiers”.
Interior Minister, Amade Miquidade said the killers were armed fighters dressed in uniforms “identical” to that of government troops.
“The video showing atrocities against a pregnant woman is propaganda by terrorists. The video was made by terrorists to confuse the public and it is not the first time that this has happened,” he said in an audio statement.
Cabo Delgado is home to one of Africa’s biggest liquefied natural gas projects. Exxon Mobil is a major investor in the development of natural gas projects worth $60bn (£45bn) off the region’s coast.
