NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Seventeen gunmen were killed in intermittent clashes since Sunday between feuding Moro factions squabbling for control of strategic areas in Banisilan town.

The hostilities involve the heavily-armed groups of Ali Rajahmuda and his relatives Kineg and Bobby and a rival gang led by Commanders Tanda, Paron, Palao and Tahir.

They all belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has an interim ceasefire accord with the government enjoining both sides to bilaterally maintain law and order in conflict flashpoint areas in the country’s south.

Local leaders in Banisilan, an upland town in North Cotabato province, told reporters that seven from the group Rajahmuda and ten from the other faction perished in the encounters which erupted on Sunday.

“This is something that needs the immediate intervention of the MILF leadership, the police and the military,” one of the sources, a member of the municipal peace and order council, told reporters.

The acting governor of North Cotabato, Shirlyn Macasarte, has reportedly tasked a Moro member of the provincial board, Kelly Antao, to intervene and lead the repositioning of the feuding groups away from populated areas.

Antao said religious leaders in the conflict-affected areas are now helping convince parties to the conflict to agree to a settlement of the dispute.

'Seven-year-old rido'

The enemy groups are locked in a now seven-year-old rido, a generic term for clan war in most Moro dialects, sparked by political differences and rivalry for control of villages from whose residents they collect money from.

The latest skirmishes between them was preceded by the ambush three weeks ago of a barangay chairman, Panamtaon Mantikayan of Barangay Busaon in the outskirts of Banisilan.

Mantikayan, scion of one of the two feuding clans, was wounded in the attack, which resulted in the deaths of his two relatives.

Besides Mantikayan, four others were wounded in the attack, which broke a two-year lull in hostilities between the two groups.

The victims were on board a vehicle to Kidapawan City when they were attacked with assault rifles at a secluded stretch of a road connecting Barangay Busaon to the center of Banisilan.

“That incident caused the latest hostilities there,” Antao told a radio station in Cotabato City Tuesday morning.

Community elders confirmed on Tuesday that the conflict has affected adjoining Barangays Pantar, Malagap, Poblacion 1, and low-income farming villages in nearby Barangay Guiling in Alamada town, also in North Cotabato

Local officials have urged the MILF’s ceasefire committee to pacify the feuding groups, both armed with assault rifles, shoulder-fired 40-mm grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets.

The government and MILF’s joint Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities worked out the disengagement of the two groups during their previous encounters.

Their recurring firefights since Sunday have caused the displacement of hundreds of ethnic Moro families relying mainly on farming as their source of income.