Boat docks in Pemba carrying those rescued from Islamic State insurgency in north of country

A boat carrying 1,200 survivors of a deadly attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in northern Mozambique has reached safety in the port of Pemba, some of them crying on arrival after spending days hiding in the bush.

Aid workers were at the port to give food to those disembarking the ferry, while police and soldiers controlled crowds of people excited to see relatives rescued during the attack that began last week in Palma, a Reuters reporter at the port said.

Seven confirmed dead and several more injured after assault on Palma, near a large gas project

As many as 60 people – mostly foreign citizens – are unaccounted for following a deadly ambush on their convoy by Islamist militants in northern Mozambique.

According to recordings of security calls reviewed by the Guardian describing the aftermath of the attack, only seven vehicles in a convoy of 17 made it to safety after the attack on Friday, with seven confirmed dead and many injured in the recovered vehicles. Everyone in the other vehicles is assumed dead.

Military tries to airlift people to safety from strategic port town of Palma, near Total gas project

More than 180 people, including expatriate workers, have been trapped inside a hotel in a northern Mozambique town under attack by insurgents for three days.

The military was trying on Friday to airlift the workers to safety from Palma town which is situated near the multibillion-dollar gas site on the Afungi peninsula in Cabo Delgado province, according to the trapped workers.

Islamist insurgents targeting victims as young as 11, according to Save the Children

Children as young as 11 are being beheaded in Mozambique as part of an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced many more from their homes, a UK-based aid group has said.

Save the Children said it had spoken to displaced families who described “horrifying scenes” of murder, including mothers whose young sons were killed. In one case, the woman hid, helpless, with her three other children as her 12-year-old was murdered nearby.