Aid agencies call for greater access to displaced

Many towns and villages remain beyond the reach of aid agencies in the southern island of Mindanao as additional government forces move into the area to track down Muslim rebels, according to aid agencies.

With more than half a million people affected by the fighting, the situation needs to be addressed quickly before it becomes a full-blown humanitarian crisis and the worst to have hit Mindanao in recent history, they say.

"Mindanao has suffered its worst fighting since 2003," said Dominik Stillhart, deputy director for operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who visited the conflict-affected areas in southern Mindanao last week.

"Up to half a million people have been affected by the conflict, and tens of thousands of them have had to flee their homes," he told reporters in Manila on 8 September. "The situation for these people is extremely difficult; they live in tents; they had to leave their homes without anything."

He said the situation was expected to deteriorate after President Gloria Arroyo earlier this month suspended peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and allowed a full military offensive in pursuit of two commanders who launched deadly raids across Mindanao last month, killing more than 50 civilians and ransacking businesses and homes.

Up to half a million people have been affected by the conflict ... We have the impression that we need to be prepared for more suffering

"We have decided now to maintain and reinforce our response [in preparation for] what may still be coming," he said. "We have the impression that we need to be prepared for more hardship, more suffering."

He said the ICRC was set to issue a "budget extension appeal" of up to US$5 million to donors to cover relief work for the remainder of the year. He said this was in addition to the $7 million budget for the year, which is virtually depleted by the relief work in Mindanao.

The army last week said armed men, believed to be an MILF faction, harassed a food convoy carrying rice supplies for the World Food Programme (WFP) and seized 28 bags near the southern town of Mamasapano. The army then dispatched additional troops to Mindanao to secure food deliveries.

The WFP said the incident had been documented, and an investigation was under way to determine the identities of the perpetrators.

The food agency, which has delivered more than 1,700 metric tonnes of rice for tens of thousands displaced by the fighting, said it was undeterred and would continue to deliver vital aid to those in need.

"We stand ready to support all IDPs in this conflict in Mindanao," WFP deputy country director Alghassim Wurie told IRIN. "We are very much concerned about the condition of IDPs in Mindanao, with some pockets remaining inaccessible."

Wurie said intense fighting had prevented them from delivering goods to some areas.

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

One of the thousands of displaced in a camp

The rebels have splintered into smaller groups after their camps were taken over by the army, and many of them are harassing far-flung civilian communities as they forage for food amid dwindling supplies, the military said. Rights monitors say many villages remained beyond reach, and the number of civilian casualties may even be higher than reported.

Meanwhile, ICRC's Stillhart said his agency was engaged in dialogue with the parties in the conflict as it investigates reports and allegations of civilian casualties on the ground. He urged both parties to allow aid workers access, saying the intensity of the conflict this month had led to "humanitarian consequences" that could last for years.

He said that in one town, Libungan Torreta, the influx of refugees had doubled the local population to more than 6,000.

"We came on foot and by boat when we heard the mortar shelling, with just the clothes we were wearing," Fairudz Abdul was quoted by an ICRC employee as saying as she carried her one-year-old baby. She said the baby had to be wrapped in plastic as the rains started. "It is so cold at night," she said.

Meanwhile, the army on 9 September acknowledged that four civilians, including a pregnant woman, were killed when air force planes fired rockets into a rebel stronghold. The civilians were fleeing on a small boat, which was hit by the air bombardment, it said.

The fighting is the worst in five years, since the MILF signed a truce with the government in 2003 to pave the way for peace talks. It has left more than 100 rebels dead, while dozens of civilians have been killed in crossfire.

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