5 dead, 20,000 displaced in clashes in BARMM town
COTABATO CITY—Nearly 5,000 families or more than 20,000 people were displaced from their homes in Nabalawag town in the Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) following days of clashes that killed five people.
Sajed Mamalampa, Nabalawag municipal information officer, said the displaced families come from the villages of Damatulan, Kadigasan, Olandang and Kurandangan.
Social workers and responders had counted some 4,892 families who fled their homes and communities to avoid being caught in the crossfire as warring groups engaged in a firefight in the boundary of Damatulan and Lomopog village in Midsayap town, Cotabato province.
According to the military, those involved are the groups of Nabalawag Mayor Datu Renz Tukuran, on the one hand, and of a certain “Commander Kutay,” on the other.
Following days of low-level skirmishes last week, the groups engaged in intense firefight on March 6, sending families fleeing to safety and prompting the Army to deploy more troops to the area to pacify the armed men.
Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said two armed men were killed in the fighting. One was found dead inside the house of Mayor Tukuran, while the other was discovered during clearing operations conducted by soldiers.
Three residents, two of them students, were also recorded by the BARMM police to have been killed by stray bullets. One, a 19-year-old senior high school student form Damatulan village, was killed on March 4.
On Sunday, the military presented to reporters the firearms recovered from the area, nine from Tukuran’s house and four seized from the group of Commander Kutay.
Class suspension
Classes in eight schools in the town have been suspended due to the incident. Six of these are elementary schools, while two are secondary schools.
As of Wednesday, Mamalampa said the local government had yet to determine when classes would resume as authorities continued to assess the situation on the ground.
He added that the situation in the area had already calmed down, although evacuees remained in several evacuation centers.
Mamalampa clarified that armed groups first attacked the house of Tukuran, triggering the heavy firefight.
The clash also damaged several government vehicles.
The fresh clashes in Nabalawag comes barely three weeks before the 12th year anniversary of the signing of the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro which was forged on the promise of ending large-scale violence in central Mindanao.
Resolving disputes
Meanwhile, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6ID) announced that it would implement a new framework aimed at addressing community-based conflicts more effectively in the boundary areas of Midsayap and Nabalawag.
Maj. Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, 6ID commander, said that previous mediation efforts usually focused on immediately stopping clashes through declarations of ceasefire and covenant signing ceremonies between conflicting groups that only brought temporary solutions as these glossed over the deeper causes of the conflict.
Today, the military is promoting the Special Conflict Mediation and Reconciliation Framework to systematically analyze and resolve disputes at the community level.
The framework emphasizes the need for the security sector to work with various government agencies and local government units in resolving conflicts.
Cagara said local officials play a crucial role in addressing such disputes.
The framework was previously carried out by the 92nd Infantry Battalion in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, following a severe clan conflict in 2023.
According to the military, no further clashes have erupted in the area since its implementation.
Bunayog noted that the proliferation of loose firearms has also contributed to the escalation of community conflicts.
The military expressed hope that through the new approach, the long-standing disputes in the affected areas can finally be resolved.
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