Marawi, officially the Islamic City of Marawi, is a 4th class component city and capital of the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 207,010 people.
The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines which involved multiple armed groups. Peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, also known by the nom de guerreAbu Abdullah al-Filipini, was a Filipino Islamist militant affiliated with ISIS. He was formerly leader of Abu Sayyaf Group, before its battalions pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An April 2016 issue of ISIL's weekly newsletter Al Naba said that Hapilon had been appointed as "emir of all Islamic State forces in the Philippines".
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.
The civil conflict in the Philippines as of February 2019, consists of an insurgency pitting government forces against Maoist rebels, that began in 1969 during the rule of Ferdinand Marcos.
The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, is an Islamist jihadist militant organization based in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. It is a smaller player in the overall Moro insurgency and is mostly active in Maguindanao and other places in central Mindanao. It is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front founded by Ameril Umbra Kato. Following Kato's death, the group split into three factions, one of which has aligned with the Islamic State, while the other two are less radical.
The 2016 Butig clashes were armed conflicts that began on February 20, 2016, between the Philippine Army and a group of Moro insurgent sympathizers of ISIS and Jemaah Islamiyah led by the Maute group in Butig, Lanao del Sur, Philippines. Three Philippine Army soldiers were killed in action, 11 wounded, and 20 terrorists killed in the early phase of battle. 335 families fled to Marawi City and 657 families took refuge in Masiu.
Dawlah Islamiya, also called Islamic State of Lanao and formerly named as the Maute Group, is a radical Islamist group composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters. Based in Lanao del Sur, it was founded by brothers Abdullah and Omar Maute. The organization, which also conducted a protection racket operation in the municipality of Butig, clashes on several occasions with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the most significant of which began in May 2017 and culminated in the siege of Marawi.
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".
Ansar Khalifa Philippines (AKP), also referred to as Ansar al-Khilafah in the Philippines and Ansarul Khilafah Philippines was a Philippine-based militant group that emerged in August 2014 when it released a video pledging allegiance to ISIS. The Armed Forces of the Philippines characterized the group as "bandits" engaging in cattle rustling and extortion activities. Malaysia listed the group as terrorist organization in 2019.
The siege of Marawi, also known as the Marawi crisis and the Battle of Marawi, was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi, Philippines, that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government security forces against militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS), including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Salafi jihadist groups. The battle also became the longest urban battle in the modern history of the Philippines.
Omarkhayam Romato Maute was a Filipino Islamist militant who co-founded, along with his brother Abdullah Maute, a Dawlah Islamiyah group in Mindanao based in the Philippines, commonly known as the Maute group after their surname.
Fr. Teresito "Chito" Suganob was a Filipino Roman Catholic priest based in Marawi. He came into national public attention when he was taken hostage by ISIL-linked Maute group militants during the earlier period of the Battle of Marawi in May 2017.
The Philippines is one of the state opponents of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), more commonly referred to by the local media as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Rommel Bigyan Sandoval was a Philippine Army officer commissioned as captain and a recipient of the Philippines' highest military award for courage, the Medal of Valor. Sandoval was the Commanding officer of the 11th Scout Ranger Company, 4th Scout Ranger Battalion of the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment deployed to fight ISIS-inspired militants during the 2017 Battle of Marawi. He graduated at Philippine Military Academy located in Baguio.
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.
Carlito Guancing Galvez Jr. is a retired Philippine Army general serving as the Senior Undersecretary and briefly as officer-in-charge of the Department of National Defense since 2023 and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process since 2018. He also served as the Chief Implementer of the Philippines' Declared National Policy Against COVID-19. In November 2020, he was appointed as the country's COVID-19 vaccine czar, and was responsible for leading the government's efforts in bringing into the country about 245.23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of May 2022 beginning in 2021 despite the global vaccine shortage. Prior to this, he also previously served as the 50th Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines from April to December 2018.
Rolando Joselito Delizo Bautista is a retired Filipino lieutenant general who served as the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development under the Duterte administration from 2018 to 2022. He held various positions in the military, such as the former Commanding General of the Philippine Army, commander of the Joint Task Force Marawi during the Battle of Marawi, and the Presidential Security Group.
The Marawi Grand Mosque, also known as the Islamic Center is a mosque located in Pangarungan Village, Marawi, Lanao del Sur, Philippines.
On December 3, 2023, an Islamist bombing occurred during a Catholic Mass at the gymnasium of Mindanao State University in Marawi, Philippines, killing four people.
