More than 150 insurgents have reportedly attacked and seized Palma, in the Mozambique's Cabo Delgado region, leading to the assassination of dozens of defenseless people according to the country’s defense and security forces.

An unnamed man described the violence of Monday's* attack in a recorded message sent to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “We are running, fleeing, trying to hide here on the shore," the messenger reported. "They are shooting everywhere."

"May it be as God wills, here in Palma," ACN's correspondent went on to say in his message. "The houses have been abandoned.”