Moro conflict

The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region in southern Philippines which involved multiple armed groups. A decades-long peace process has resulted in peace deals 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. The root cause of the Moro conflict is associated in a long history of resistance by the Moro people against foreign rule, for centuries the region was under the control of the Spanish Empire. The U.S. had a brief war with Spain in 1898 which ended in the transfer of the Philippines to the United States, and this led to American occupation until 1946. During the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the government and Moro rebel groups. The Moro insurgency was triggered by the Jabidah massacre on March 18, 1968, during which 60 Filipino Muslim commandos on a planned operation to reclaim the eastern part of the Malaysian state of Sabah were killed. To conserve the secrecy of the operation, the Malaysian government supported and funded the rebels which devastated the southern Philippines, until support ceased in 2001. Various organizations pushing for Moro self-determination, either through autonomy or independence, were almost immediately formed in response. Although these generally did not last long until University of the Philippines professor Nur Misuari established the Moro National Liberation Front, an armed insurgent group committed to establishing an independent Mindanao, in 1972. In the following years, the MNLF splintered into several different groups including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front founded by Hashim Salamat in 1977, which sought to establish an Islamic state within the Philippines. In 1991, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani...