LONDON — An Italian nun was killed yesterday in an apparent ISIS-affiliated terrorist attack in the Mozambique city of Chipene. Gunmen stormed a Catholic mission there late Tuesday night. As the attack raged, two Catholic nuns and a group of fled the mission and took cover in the nearby forests according to social media posts.
The attackers set about putting the mission structures ablaze, including the church, the hospital, and the primary and secondary schools. Sister Maria De Coppi received a fatal gunshot wound to the head as she attempted to reach a dormitory where students were believed to be hiding.
De Coppi was ordained as a nun in 1960. After a brief stint in Portugal, she first arrived in Mozambique in 1963, when the country was still a Portuguese colony. Marie and the other sisters at the mission were members of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, a Catholic religious institute with deep ties to Africa. Mozambique is the southernmost country in Africa in which the Catholic religious institute operates.
