The Philippines: 730 families flee infighting between Muslim rebel groups
| Publisher | Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) |
| Publication Date | 23 September 2011 |
| Cite as | Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), The Philippines: 730 families flee infighting between Muslim rebel groups, 23 September 2011, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4e80524a2.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Three days of fighting in mid-September between members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group that split from the MILF in early 2011, have left four fighters killed and displaced thousands of people from their homes in Barangay Ganta and Shariff Saydona Mustapha in Maguindanao province. The estimated 730 internally displaced families (totalling perhaps 3,600 people) sought refuge in a school in Shariff Saydona Mustapha and in the nearby towns of Penditen, Datu Salibo and Datu Piang. According to the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, a body set up by the government and the MILF in 1997 to prevent small incidents leading to wider conflict, the fighting may have been linked to a rido or family feud rooted in a land dispute between two commanders of the MILF and BIFF.
