Another clash in Sabah

Malaysian authorities and suspected members of the Sulu royal army clashed again in Lahad Datu, Sabah on Sunday, March 24. Four people, including two children, were killed and two were hurt. Malaysian newspaper The Star said 4 bodies were recovered in a house in Tanjung Batu after a firefight with suspected followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III. The dead included a man, a woman, a boy and a girl. 

Malaysian security forces claimed over 60 people died in their encounters with members of the royal army. Kiram’s attempt to reclaim his “ancestral legacy” has had disastrous effects on Filipinos living in Malaysia. Refugees are pouring in to Tawi-Tawi and Sulu in small uncovered boats, many of them undocumented by the country’s social welfare agency. Filipinos in Malaysia, many of them without passports, fear a crackdown by Malaysian authorities is imminent.

Read more on Rappler here and here