| 2008 Battle of North Cotabato | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Moro conflict | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Moro Islamic Liberation Front | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Umbra Kato | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2,500 troops | 1,000 rebels | ||||||
The 2008 Battle of North 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 North Cotabato, a province of Mindanao, in the Philippines. [1]
A thousand MILF rebels under the command of Umbra Kato seized control of thirty-five villages in the North 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 North 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. [2] [3] [4]
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. [2] [3]
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. [2]
The main road from Cotabato to Davao City was temporarily closed regarding the military checkpoints. [2]
An estimated 3,000 army soldiers were killed with an unknown number of rebels killed. [2]
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is an Islamist group based in Mindanao, Philippines, seeking an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, Palawan, Basilan, and other neighbouring islands. The armed wing of the group was the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), although the name of its parent organization, the MILF, was often used to refer to the BIAF. In July, 2018, the Philippine government passed the Bangsamoro Organic Law, giving more autonomy to Muslims. In return, MILF announced that it would disarm its 30,000 fighters.
Cotabato or North Cotabato, officially the Province of Cotabato, is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Soccsksargen region in Mindanao. Its capital is the city of Kidapawan. Some of its municipalities are under the jurisdiction of the nearby Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
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Ameril Umbra Kato was a Filipino Islamic militant who was the founder of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group which seceded from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He joined the MILF in or around 1985, after he graduated from the esteemed Wahhabism School Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Umbra Kato was the Philippines' most wanted man, though due to his membership in MILF he was not hunted by the military. A warrant of arrest was filed against him alongside other BIFF members by the Philippine National Police. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, with the MILF, launched Operation Darkhorse in a bid to arrest him in January 2014.
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Bangsamoro, officially the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is an autonomous region in the Philippines, located in the southwestern portion of the island of Mindanao.
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The Jeddah Accord was signed on January 3–4, 1987 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by Aquilino Pimentel Jr., representing the Government of the Philippines and Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front. The two panels agreed upon the continued discussion of the proposal of the grant of full autonomy to Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan subject to democratic processes.
The 2000 Philippine campaign against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was a military campaign conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against a Muslim secessionist group that took place during the presidency of Joseph Estrada in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines. The campaign was waged "to weaken the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's capability to undermine the territorial integrity of the Philippines and inflict harm on both government personnel and civilians".
The Battle of the Buliok Complex took place on 11 February 2003 in an area within the provinces of Maguindanao and Cotabato in Mindanao, Philippines. The 60-hectare complex, which stretches from Pikit, Cotabato to Pagalungan, Maguindanao, was a stronghold of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Accused by the Philippine government of harboring members of Pentagon, a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang operating in Mindanao, the MILF was attacked in the Buliok complex by the Armed Forces of the Philippines under orders from then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The International Monitoring Team (IMT) was a monitoring team composed of 60 members headquartered in Cotabato City, Mindanao of the Philippines to monitor the implementation of peace between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and one of the largest rebels in the region, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Moro conflict. The team is led by Malaysia, followed by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan, Libya, Norway and subsequently the European Union.
This is a chronology of the Moro conflict, an ongoing armed conflict in the southern Philippines between jihadist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Maute Group, Jemaah Islamiyah, and Islamic State affiliates, mainstream separatist groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and the Philippine Government since 1971. Much of the fighting has been concentrated on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, with spillover incidents and attacks occurring in the Philippine capital Manila and neighboring countries such as Malaysia.
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