(AKI) - Thousands of inhabitants in central Mindanao in the restive southern Philippines are being continually displaced by fighting and natural disasters, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.Floods have receded in Mindanao, but crops have been destroyed and the fighting keeps creating fresh displacement on a daily basis, the ICRC said in a report. "Even though the flare-up in fighting at the end of Ramadan feared by some has not materialised, the situation of the displaced in Mindanao remains difficult," said Felipe Donoso, head of the ICRC delegation in the Philippines.
Constant skirmishes between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels keep triggering displacement. "In one single day, 213 families -- more than 1,000 people -- recently arrived in the town of Datu Piang," said Perry Proellochs, ICRC delegate for Central Mindanao.
Over the weekend of 11 and 12 October, fighting broke out again in villages on the island belonging to the nearby municipality of Mamasapano. The clashes displaced several hundred people. "The displaced are moving by the truckload," added Proellochs.
Maguindanao, where Datu Piang and Mamasapano are located, is the area most severely affected by the armed conflict. In Datu Piang alone, a natural convergence point for neighbouring villages, there are over 24,000 displaced people, out of a total 41,000 displaced in Mamasapano.