The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesman Eid Kabalu took responsibility for the attack in mainly Christian M'Lang, where Muslim rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades into houses and shot at Christians. Three of the victims were killed while sleeping in their mosquito nets.

Despite an interim pact to resume peace talks with the Muslim separatists violence has continued. In Midsayap the MILF used 6 Christian farmers as human shields against the pursuing Philippine army. Tensions in the area were heightened on April 2nd when a bomb destroyed a city wharf, killing 16 people in Davao, a city with a Christian majority and a Muslim minority. Then three mosques were bombed. The MILF denied responsibility for the mosque attack. The MILF and the Philippine army clashed again in the town of M'Lang on April 7th and 200 families were forced to flee to safer areas. Peace talks between the MILF and the Government are now in doubt.

Islamic separatists in the mainly Christian Philippines have been fighting for an independent Islamic homeland in the South of the country for the five million Muslim Filipinos since 1972. Two Islamic militant groups, the MILF, mainly operating in Mindanao, and the smaller and more extreme Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Jolo, are in the forefront of the current violence. Islamic militants often target Christian-majority cities, towns and villages in the southern Philippines. Christian ministers and missionaries have in the past been singled out for torture and execution.

Salip Asman Halipa, a senior Abu Sayyaf commander, was shot and killed by the Philippine army on March 25th. But the army has had only limited success, as have the Government's peace efforts. MILF demands include any peace deal in Mindanao being monitored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents 53 Muslim states. Therefore any future peace deal is very unlikely to benefit local Christian communities.