A new report by Human Rights Watch has revealed that hundreds of women, ladies and children are abducted while others were sold to forcefully marry in Northern Mozambique.

According to Human Rights Watch, insurgents have since 2018, kidnapped and enslaved more than 600 women and girls in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, with Mozambican and regional forces having rescued some of them, nevertheless many remain missing.

The group, known locally as Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah and Al-Shabab, forced young women and girls into their custody to ‘marry’ their fighters, who enslave and sexually abuse them. Others have been sold to foreign fighters for between 40,000 and 120,000 Meticais (U.S. $600 to U.S. $1,800). Abducted foreign women and girls, in particular, have been released after their families paid ransom, the report says.

Mausi Segun, Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, requested from Al Shabab’s leaders to immediately release every woman and girl in their captivity. He charged them to “take all necessary steps to prevent rape and sexual abuse by their fighters, end child marriage, forced marriage, and the sale and enslavement of women and girls at their bases and areas of operation”.

Between August 2019 and October 2021, Human Rights Watch indicated that they remotely interviewed 37 people, including former abductees, their relatives, security sources, and government officials, and monitored media reports about kidnappings. The report noted that Al-Shabab mostly abducted women and girls during attacks in various Cabo Delgado districts, including Mocímboa da Praia in March, June, and August 2020, and Palma in March 2021.

Victims and Witnesses Recount Ordeal

In the report, a 33-year-old woman stated that Al-Shabab fighters assaulted her aunt, a local official, and forced her at gunpoint to identify all the houses containing girls between ages 12 and 17 in Diaca town, Mocimboa da Praia. The woman counted 203 girls but did not know whether the fighters abducted all the girls. “Some mothers were begging the fighters to take them instead of their daughters, but one of the mashababos said they didn’t want old women with children and diseases.”

A 34-year-old former abductee from Mocimboa da Praia said he was forced to select the women and girls for sex with the fighters on their return from military operations. “Those [women] who refused were punished with beatings, and no food for days.”

On April 30, the African Union Commission’s special envoy on women, peace, and security, Bineta Diop, called on the Mozambique government, regional bodies, and the international community to “act swiftly and provide adequate support” to women and girls who have been held and mistreated by Al-Shabab.

In recent years, the Mozambican authorities have made some progress rescuing hundreds of kidnap victims from the group’s bases. However, the authorities have kept those liberated incommunicado for weeks or longer without access to relatives, ostensibly for security screenings.

Human Rights Watch Calls on International Organisations to Help Victims

Human Rights Watch called on Mozambican authorities and international and regional partners, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to provide rights-respecting, gender-sensitive, child-sensitive, and dignified reintegration and rehabilitation services, including comprehensive post-rape care, to rescued women and girls.

The authorities should fully investigate and appropriately prosecute Al-Shabab leaders and fighters for abductions, child and forced marriages, rape and sexual violence, enslavement, and other gender-based crimes in violation of international and Mozambican law.