2023-12-04 04:03:50
Clues pointed in the direction of the Islamic State. The group claimed responsibility for the attack. At least four people were killed and around 50 others injured in a bomb attack on Sunday during a Catholic mass in the southern Philippines, authorities said. The explosion occurred in the gymnasium of Mindanao State University in Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city, regional police chief Allan Nobleza said.
“Soldiers of the caliphate detonated an explosive device on a large gathering of Christians (…) in the city of Marawi,” said the Islamic State via a press release published on the jihadist group’s Telegram channels. Earlier, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos condemned these “senseless and particularly heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists”. For his part, Pope Francis assured that he was “close to the families, to the inhabitants of Mindanao, who have already suffered so much”.
The Mindanao State University said it stood in “solidarity” with its Christian community and the victims of “this tragedy.” She suspended classes and deployed more security personnel to campus.
“People were lying on the ground”
From his hospital bed, Chris Honculado, a 21-year-old student, said the explosion happened during the first Bible reading at the 7 a.m. mass. “The explosion was very sudden and everyone started running,” he said. When I looked behind me, people were lying on the ground. We didn’t know what happened, everything happened very quickly. »
Also speaking from the hospital, Rowena Mae Fernandez, 19, said she did not immediately understand the nature of the explosion but that people were fleeing the scene. “My partner and I also ran, although we collapsed at one point. That’s the only thing I remember until I walked out of the gym and fell again, she recalled. My friends were crying because they saw my injury. »
Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra urged members of the Muslim and Christian communities to remain united: “Our city has long been a symbol of peaceful coexistence and harmony, and we will not allow such acts of violence to overshadow our collective commitment to peace and unity. »
A region shaken by unrest
The attack came after a Philippine military airstrike on Friday killed 11 Islamist militants from the Dawlah Islamiya-Philippine organization in Mindanao. A chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, General Romeo Brawner, declared that it was perhaps an attack carried out in retaliation for this military operation against the Islamist organizations Dawlah Islamiyah-Philippines, Abu Sayyaf and Maute, in western Mindanao. “Based on the evidence we have gathered, a high percentage point to Maute-Islamic State (IS),” Brawner added.
By May 2017, hundreds of foreign gunmen and local pro-IS Maute and Abu Sayyaf militants had seized Marawi. The Philippine army recaptured the ruined city after a five-month battle that cost more than a thousand lives. “There are strong indications of a foreign component (in Sunday’s attack),” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told reporters.
Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Sur are part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Militant attacks on buses, Catholic churches and public markets are characteristic of the unrest that has rocked the region for decades. In 2014, Manila signed a peace pact with the country’s largest rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, ending their bloody armed insurgency. But there remain small bands of Muslim insurgents opposed to the peace deal, including militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Communist rebels also operate in the region.
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