Event
2008 battle in the Philippines
The 2008 Battle of Cotabato was a military confrontation between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and a rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faction under the command of Umbra Kato in Cotabato, a province of Mindanao, in the Philippines.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “North Cotabato Conflict”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The 2008 Battle of Cotabato was a military confrontation between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and a rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faction under the command of Umbra Kato in Cotabato, a province of Mindanao, in the Philippines.
A thousand MILF rebels under the command of Umbra Kato seized control of thirty-five villages in Cotabato. Two thousand Philippine troops with helicopters and artillery were sent to the seized area on August 9 to liberate it from the rebels. The MILF had wanted Cotabato to be included in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The Filipino government and MILF had been negotiating for the inclusion of the province, but the Supreme Court of the Philippines had struck down the proposal after hearing concern from local Christian leaders in the region. The attacks caused 22,000 people to flee from their homes.
Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front began launching attacks against civilians, Targeting Predominantly Christian and sometimes, mixed Christian-Muslim communities. The Philippine military reported that most of the civilian casualties were inflicted by the rebels.
Moro rebels were accused of using guns and machetes to kill Christian villagers, and using children as soldiers, more than 610,000 civilians fled their homes. The series of attacks reportedly resulted in the deaths of 104 to 400 people.
The rebel troops were ordered to leave the area by their commanders, but the contingents under Kato refused to leave the villages they had occupied. The Philippine Army responded on August 9 by bombarding them. The next day, the government forces moved to retake the villages, recapturing two of them from the rebels.
On August 19, Alvin Canto, a Sub-Commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who led the group's 2nd Battalion surrendered along with 30 other men and also surrendered several high-powered firearms
The Armed Forces of the Philippines set up Military Checkpoints over the Cotabato-Davao City Road in order to catch the group led by Umbra Kato.
The main road from Cotabato to Davao City was temporarily closed regarding the military checkpoints.
As a result of the violence and attacks, around 1,000 were killed between August 2008 to July 2009, and 750,000 were displaced.
In 2009, a year after the conflict occurred, A 45-page report stated that at least 548 soldiers were killed and 49 others were wounded during the 10 months of fighting between Moro rebels and the Philippine military.
In the 18th of August 2008, hundreds of kilometres away from North Cotabato, forces under MILF commanderAbdullah Macapaar, alias "Commander Bravo", launched more attacks in the towns of Lanao del Norte province,killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.
Local organizations documented several incidents of rebels under Abdullah Macapaar, targeting civilians in attacks, including MILF attacks on farmers in North Cotabato province and on civilians in the towns of Kauswagan and Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte province on the 18th of August, killing dozens of people, and possibly reaching up to 70.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2008 Cotabato conflict”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.