Two minors were hit by stray bullets in sporadic gun battles involving warring Moro families in the interior villages of Pikit, North Cotabato, the past two days, a social welfare official said Friday.
“The victims of stray bullets, aged 4 and 7 years old, are now safe and have returned home,” said Tahira Kalantongan, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) action officer.
“They only suffered minor injuries but we know the trauma is deep,” she said, adding that the conflict started on Wednesday and ended Thursday. “No more fighting as of today (Friday),” Kalantongan said.
Kalantongan said armed hostilities, although sporadic, erupted between two warring Moro families in several villages situated in the borders of Pikit and in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.
“The fighting was sporadic, not massive but people feared for their safety,” she said, adding that normalcy has been restored and the presence of soldiers and police help prevent civilians from abandoning their communities.
Kalantongan said Muslim elders have also entered into the picture to help pacify warring families bringing them to the negotiating table for diplomatic solutions to conflict.
The skirmishes stemmed from a land dispute between the families of the Mangindras and Talusobs who both have relatives from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the area.
The MILF, for its part, has also sent a buffer force in the site of conflict as part of the pacification efforts.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1058000
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