ISIS jihadis are ‘beheading CHILDREN as young as 11 in barbaric uprising that’s left 2,500 dead in Mozambique’

ISIS militants are beheading CHILDREN as young as 11 in northern Mozambique during their ruthless rebellion.

Brainwashed jihadis have turned their tyrannical sights on swathes of innocent youngsters as they continue their campaign to control the Cabo Delgado province.

Over 2,500 people have been murdered and 700,000 have been forced to abandon their homes after the Islamist insurgency began in 2017, according to Save the Children.

The leading aid agency is "sickened to the core" after displaced families told of their children's untimely and unjust deaths by militants linked to the Islamic State.

Families shared harrowing stories of their loved ones being ripped away from them - leaving them swept in grief and traumatised by the appalling actions they witnessed.

One 28-year-old mother, whose name was omitted to conceal her identity, told how her eldest child was beheaded as she hid with her other children.

"That night our village was attacked and houses were burned. When it all started, I was at home with my four children," she explained.

"We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We couldn't do anything because we would be killed too."

The conflict in Cabo Delgado has gravely intensified in the last year, as an increasing number of civilians continue to be targeted.

Last November, militants turned a football pitch into an "execution ground" as they decapitated and chopped up the bodies of villagers in the northern province.

Cabo Delgado is also still recovering from a succession of national disasters, including 2019's Cyclone Kenneth and huge floods in early 2020, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

Another distraught mother explained her son was killed by ISIS radicals, forcing her to flee with her three other children.

"After my 11-year-old son was killed, we understood that it was no longer safe to stay in my village.

"We fled to my father's house in another village, but a few days later the attacks started there too," she said.

"Me, my father and the children spent five days eating green bananas and drinking banana tree water until we got transport that brought us here."

The Pentagon warned the extremists were taking over swathes of Africa ,like it did in Syria and Iraq, with "staggeringly brutal" tactics in October 2020.

Chance Briggs, Save the Children's country director in Mozambique, said the reports of attacks on children "sicken us to our core".

"Our staff have been brought to tears when hearing the stories of suffering told by mothers in displacement camps," he said.

Chance Briggs, Save the Children’s Country Director in Mozambique, said: "Reports of attacks on children sicken us to our core. Our staff have been brought to tears when hearing the stories of suffering told by mothers in displacement camps.

"This violence has to stop, and displaced families need to be supported as they find their bearings and recover from the trauma."

The US Special Operations Forces announced they will train Mozambican marines for two months in the northern province to fight back against the extremist epidemic.

"Civil protection, human rights, and community involvement are central to US co-operation and are critical to effectively combating Islamic State in Mozambique," an embassy official said.

They also pledged to provide "medical and communications equipment".