ZAMBOANGA CITY – Gunmen opened fire on a United Nations truck carrying rice to thousands of people displaced by fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels last Sunday, killing one aid worker, UN officials said.
The truck was ambushed in Calanogas town in Lanao del Sur, where government troops have been battling Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels since tensions flared in August, said Stephen Anderson, the World Food Program (WFP) representative in Manila.
He said his agency was working with the government to investigate the shooting, which killed a Filipino worker. Two other people in the vehicle – which was contracted by the WFP – were unhurt.
“The WFP strongly deplores the senseless loss of life of an individual who was assisting in the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Anderson said in a statement.
A military official, Col. Rey Ardo, told the local media the attackers were probably bandits who wanted to rob the truck.
“There is no involvement by the MILF,” he said.
WFP official Patricia Artadi-Facultad said the WFP has been told the area where the attack took place is prone to highway robberies.
She said the truck was traveling alone without a military escort, as is standard procedure. She said it was the first time an aid worker contracted by the UN has been killed in the country.
“Since we returned to the Philippines in 2006, we have faced a minimum of security challenges,” she said, adding that aid operations will continue despite the shooting.
The WFP has been supplying tons of rice to about 300,000 Filipinos in the South who fled their homes at the height of fighting in August, when MILF rebels went on a bloody rampage in Lanao communities to protest the scrapping of a preliminary peace deal.
The agreement to expand an existing Muslim autonomous region was nullified by the Supreme Court acting on a petition by politicians.
The government has subsequently put peace talks on hold, although it recently indicated it was ready to restart negotiations. – AP, Roel Pareño and Pia Lee-Brago