Gunfights between Moro groups rock Pikit municipality again
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 16:00 PM Sun Jun 7, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
COTABATO CITY --- Hundreds of villagers were displaced by gunfights Sunday between two heavily-armed Moro factions in Pikit town in North Cotabato.
The hostilities involve the groups of the enemies Ricky Kusain and Butch Sanday, who has just been booted from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last week for serious offenses.
Sanday and his followers, armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, went on rampage early Sunday and fired at villages where Kusain and his men reside, provoking running gunfights that sent no fewer than 500 villagers running for their lives.
Residents of Barangay Inug-ug in Pikit told reporters stray bullets hit their houses as the two groups clashed in nearby barangays.
A villager was wounded in the crossfire, according to senior members of the Pikit municipal peace and order council.
Talks have been spreading around since Friday purporting that Sanday has joined the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya after he was dropped from the MILF’s roster of members by the group’s central leadership for having started the now deep-seated animosity between him and other moro commanders in the municipality of Pikit.
Pikit is near the Liguasan Delta, a known sanctuary of wanted leaders of the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The Dawlah Islamiya is not covered by the peace process between Malacañang and the MILF.
North Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco said Sunday the provincial government has sent emissaries to the feuding Moro commanders in Pikit to convince them to disengage and reconcile via third party mediation. (JUNE 7, 2020)