The government has signed a peace agreement with a Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, giving greater autonomy to Muslim areas of Mindanao, to be called Bangsamoro, in exchange for the MILF’s surrender of its weapons. The accord, reached after the loss of 120,000 lives in 40 years of conflict, and years of sporadic negotiations, does not include smaller Muslim insurgent groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the al Qaeda-linked Islamist group Abu Sayyaf.
