Islamist terrorists occupying a southern Philippine city have forced nearly 400,000 people in the wider area to flee their homes, officials said as they warned of disease outbreaks and psychological trauma among refugees.

The city of Marawi, considered the Muslim capital of the largely Catholic Philippines, has been reduced to a ghost town after self-styled followers of the Islamic State movement launched an assault on the city on May 23.

For more than a month, the government has deployed jet fighters, attack helicopters and armored vehicles to crush the militants who are members of the so-called Maute group.

The fighting has left over 400 people dead, while the Maute fighters still control parts of the city, using snipers and improvised explosive devices to slow the military’s advance.

Out of 389,300 who have fled, over 70,380 people have been housed in 79 government-run evacuation centers, while the rest have sheltered with their relatives, according to social welfare department figures.

Liza Mazo that relief officials have struggled to deal with outbreaks of illness at the evacuation centers as government forces continue to launch air strikes and artillery barrages against the militants.

“There are alarming cases of skin diseases and gastroenteritis. We want to control the outbreak, not just in the evacuation center but even the home-based (refugees),” she said.

“There are also cases of psychological trauma from the fighting.”

Some 26 people who have fled Marawi have since died in hospitals from various ailments, according to the health department’s local spokesman Jun Galban, but he declined to say whether their deaths were related to the evacuation.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law over the southern Philippines to deal with the crisis, vowed on Saturday that government forces would crush the extremists.

“We will not go out there (Marawi) until the last terrorist is executed,” he said in a speech to government workers.

But he conceded, “we are having a hard time.”

“We never realized the magnitude of their preparation for their explosives. We got there, they were positioned (with) their snipers. We practically had to climb upward,” he said. </s> Airstrikes were launched against a faction of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in the marshy areas of the municipalities of Datu Montawal, Pagalungan, Gen. SK Pendatun, and Sultan sa Barongis in the province of Maguindanao, as well as in the municipality of Pikit in the province of North Cotabato on 10 June 2018.

This incident was part of an ongoing operation by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the BIFF faction led by Esmail Abubakar (aka Commander Bungos), whose group had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).

The operation was coordinated with the MILF ceasefire panel. However, due to time constraints, no pre-emptive evacuation was organized.

A BIFF bomb factory in the southern parts of Liguasan Marsh was reportedly destroyed as a result of this operation. In addition, 15 members of the BIFF faction were killed and 8 were wounded, according to reports. This information was, however, denied by the leadership of the BIFF.

Residents of these areas who were, at that time, taking their preobservance of the Islamic month of Ramadhan were forced to evacuate to safer locations.

Based on the most recent report provided by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office of Maguindanao as of 19 June 2018, 5,136 families (23,465 individuals) have been displaced.

 Most of the displaced are staying with host families, while the rest have settled in designated evacuation sites, such as schools, gyms, and in other community structures. IDPs who are home-based, particularly those in the remote areas, are at risk of being excluded from registration processes.

The government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) through the ARMM Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (ARMM-HEART), DSWD ARMM, and DSWD Region XII are presently working in close coordination with the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils of the affected municipalities within their respective jurisdiction, which have conducted assessments to different displacement sites, to address the displacement.

The displaced population perceive that their displacement may take longer than expected. They have expressed that they will not return until Government troops have pulled out from the area, because they fear that they may be caught in the crossfire.

An undetermined number of civilians residing in the area known as the Salbu, Pagatin, Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak (SPMS) Box and in neighboring towns have also pre-emptively evacuated to nearby villages because of fear of a possible escalation of conflict in their areas, triggered by the increasing presence of the military.

There is an advice from the authorities that the IDPs can safely return to their respective residences. However, IDPs have chosen to stay away from their places of origin because of the continued military operations. There are evacuation centers that are vacated, but only because the IDPs have just transferred to other temporary displacement locations.
Almost 2,000 families are displaced in Mindanao region of the Philippines due to clashes between government forces and Islamist militants.