BANGKOK (AlertNet) – Clashes between a rebel group and the army have forced nearly 2,200 people to flee their homes on the island of Mindanao, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Philippines said.
The fighting started on Aug. 5 between the army and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Unlike MILF, BIFM is not covered by an existing ceasefire agreement between MILF and the Philippine government.
More than 450 families have taken refuge in four evacuation centres in Ampatuan municipality in Mindanao, ICRC said in a statement.
"Although these families were in evacuation centres, they still faced difficulties to cover themselves from the rainy weather,” Christoph Polajner, head of ICRC’s office in Cotabato City, said in a statement.
“When they fled, these families left behind most of their possessions and are still unable to return home, fearful of the insecurity," he added.
The decades-old conflict between government forces and Muslim separatists in Mindanao has killed 120,000 people, displaced 2 million and stunted growth in the poor but resource-rich island.
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