More than 5,000 families or 24,755 residents of Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines evacuated their homes after the Sunday attacks of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) against the military and government facilities. BIFF is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been in peace talks with the Philippine government for more than 14 years. Both sides say they hope to sign an agreement by the end of the year. However, breakaway groups like BIFF add a new dimension although both sides say this week’s attacks shouldn’t affect the talks. In an unrelated development, 3 soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during what intelligence sources say is a military raid on a drug den at Mindanao State University in Marawi.
Read more about the impact of BIFF violence and the Marawi shooting on Rappler.
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.