Lanao del Sur gov't steps up relief operation as number of displaced families reach 2,450

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 29): Lanao del Sur gov't steps up relief operation as number of displaced families reach 2,450

The number of families affected by armed hostilities in Butig, Lanao del Sur has ballooned to 2,450 families as government forces intensified offensives against a local terrorist group, officials said Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, the number of persons affected by the armed conflict was estimated at 12,500 persons, provincial information officer, Salma Jayne Tamano, said in a phone interview.

On Sunday, the provincial governor’s office listed 1,970 families affected from the armed hostilities housed temporarily in at least 10 public schools outside Butig town center.

Tamano said workers are to distribute more relief supplies in evacuation sites in the next three days. Initial food packs were distributed Monday morning.

She added that the affected families were not only from Butig town which the Maute Group, a local terrorist organization that pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, occupied on Saturday.

She said residents of two villagers of adjacent town of Lumbayanague, also in Lanao del Sur, were also affected. Families from Barangays Wago and Raya, both near Butig, have deserted their homes and moved to safer grounds.

Government forces have been pounding the extremists, led by brothers Abdullah and Omar Maute, with air and ground assaults after the armed men occupied the government center of Butig.

Tamano said the provincial government has initially distributed more than three tons of relief goods to residents who fled when armed men stormed Butig and raised the black ISIS flag.

Lanao Sur is among the five provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
ARMM Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman said employees of ARMM’s social welfare department are now preparing individual relief packs for each of the affected families.

“I hope the situation in Butig and nearby areas will normalize soon," Lucman, also ARMM's Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=944333