Earlier this year, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called the months following the Zamboanga conflict in the Philippines the “forgotten crisis in the shadow of [Typhoon] Haiyan.”
It is an apt depiction. The 20-day fighting between a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Zamboanga last September left at least 140 people dead, destroyed more than 10,000 houses and displaced an estimated 118,800 people, according to the plan of action OCHA published last month.
And yet, very little funding has been received since around $25 million was requested in October last year, according to Luiza Carvalho, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for the Philippines. This has stagnated the rehabilitation process for those who have yet to find durable solutions to their displacement.