Clashes mar Ramadan in Sulu town

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - More than 600 families in Samal Banguingui island town in Sulu are observing the Ramadan amid a standoff between two armed groups whose clashes before Sunday's start of the month-long fasting season left four gunmen dead and another wounded.

The latest hostilities between the rival factions, one led by Maling Ukkang and the other by Imam Yusoph Anggal, affected seven fishing villages, according to a report released on Tuesday by the inter-agency Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Ukkang and Anggal are squabbling for control of strategic seaside villages in Samal Baguingui, an impoverished island municipality at the border of ARMM's adjoining Basilan and Sulu provinces.

More than half of the displaced families had been provided with food rations since the weekend by Sulu provincial offices of ARMM line agencies allied with HEART.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his regional executive secretary, Laisa Alamia, who are jointly managing the HEART, are optimistic the feuding groups will agree to an amicable settlement of the conflict.

Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan Jr. has been trying to reconcile the two groups with the help of local religious leaders and provincial staffers of the ARMM’s Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission.

The two rival groups, both identified with the Moro National Liberation Front, are armed with assault rifles and shoulder-fire 40 MM grenade launchers.

Alamia has urged both sides to adhere to the temporary ceasefire brokered by local officials and their provincial governor to prevent any disruption of the observance of Ramadan of residents of Samal Banguingi, formerly named Tongkil municipality.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the month-long Ramadan.