MANILA, July 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 17,000 people have been displaced by fighting between government forces and Abu Sayyaf in impoverished southern Philippine province of Basilan since early this month, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that shelling and air strikes over the last three weeks have forced 3,400 families from three towns of Tipo-tipo, Al-Barka and Ungkaya Pukan to leave their houses and farms.
The residents are now living with their relatives in nearby towns that are not yet affected by the military offensives, the statement said.
"The security situation in Basilan is precarious. We are concerned for the civilians as we expect clashes to continue in the coming weeks," Yann Fridez, head of the ICRC in Mindanao.
He said that casualties have been reported on both sides, while a few civilians were also wounded in the wake of the long-running clashes.
"We urge all to the fighting to exercise utmost precaution to minimize the impact or damage to civilian communities," said Fridez, pleading to the clashing groups "to spare the civilian structures such as hospitals, schools and houses, and facilities that are essential for their daily lives."
Fridez said the ICRC, together with volunteers from the Philippine Red Cross, has visited evacuees in the three affected municipalities this week to distribute hygiene kits, blankets, towels jerry cans, mosquito nets and sleeping mats.
The ICRC also distributed dressing kits and medical supplies including drugs and anti-tetanus vaccines to enhance the capacity of the rural health units in the three towns to treat the sick and wounded, he said.
In April, he said the ICRC and the Department of Health Emergency Management Bureau had conducted Basic Life Support training for 168 health staff in Basilan and nearby Sulu provinces.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered an offensive against the Abu Staff operating mainly in the remote and impoverished regions of Basilan and Sulu.
Duterte said Thursday that his administration has no plan of talking peace with Abu Sayyaf, branding them as "criminals."
"I will not talk with criminals. You have to destroy them; there's no other choice. There's no ideology," he told military troops in Lucena City.
Duterte said he would only talk to rebel group "with ideology" referring to the Moro National Liberation Front, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed and front groups, the New People's Army and the National Democratic Front.
The Philippine government has been fighting the Abu Sayyaf rebels since the 1990s. Past administrations have labeled the group, numbering about 400, as bandits or criminals that carries out illegal activities including kidnappings for ransom, killings and bombings in Mindanao in southern Philippines.
