Manila: Tens of thousands of residents remain displaced while evacuation centres across Maguindanao are brimming with evacuees as fighting rages between security forces and armed groups.
According to the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC), a total of 40,745 people have been displaced in seven towns in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a month of fighting broke out between government forces and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Security forces had been enforcing an all-out offensive against the BIFF that had been harassing civilians and were believed to be behind a number of bombing attacks in Central Mindanao.
According to the ICRC, the numbers of displaced residents are rising.
Entire communities from the villages in Kalibugan and Buliok, in Maguindanao, forced to flee from their homes by a range of clashes in early February, fear returning to their homes owing to the risk of explosive devices and the general uncertainty of the situation.
“Civilians are forced to flee out of fear. Displacement, especially when it’s prolonged and repeated, uproots people from their normal lives and causes untold suffering,” Pascal Mauchle, head of the ICRC’s delegation in the Philippines, said.
The displaced residents were from the towns of Mamasapano, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Datu Unsay, Shariff Aguak, Datu Salibo, Rajah Buayan and Datu Hoffer.
Reports said that due to the rising number of evacuees, the provincial board of Maguindanao has declared the entire province under a state of calamity.
Under local administration protocols, declaring an area under a state of calamity will enable officials to use emergency funds.
Mauchle said the displaced residents are running out of food, clean water and access to sanitation.
For its part, the nongovernment Action Against Hunger (ACF International) said authorities must ensure that vulnerable people such as children, women, pregnant and breastfeeding women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities are protected.
“Working in emergency and development contexts in Mindanao in the last 15 years, we have witnessed how frightened families were forced to flee their village because of the insecurity, and far from their fields, their food was greatly reduced. Hundreds of children have become severely malnourished,” Javad Amoozegar, ACF Country Director for the Philippines said.
Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), led by commander Umbra Kato, had split from the mainstream Moro rebel group to form the BIFF in 2010.
Reports from Manila said Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Pio Catapang had ordered an end to the government offensive against the BIFF after a monthlong unrelenting operation.
