A South African private security firm will hire outside lawyers to look into its activities in Mozambique after Amnesty International accused it of firing indiscriminately on civilians while helping the government fight an insurgency.

In a report issued this morning Amnesty accused both the government and the insurgents of war crimes against civilians including killings, dismemberment, torture and abductions.

The government has hired South African private security firm to help it fight Al-Shabaab.

Mozambique has previously denied accusations that its soldiers had committed atrocities, saying the killings blamed on government forces were carried out by Islamist insurgents impersonating troops.

More than half a million people have been displaced and hundreds killed in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region since Islamist militants launched an insurgency in 2017.