Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)

About

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was founded in the Philippines in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The MNLF was the leading organization among Moro separatists for nearly two decades beginning from the 1970s. In the early 1990s, several MNLF members broke off to form the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), one of the most violent terrorist groups in the Philippines.

In 1996, the MNLF signed a landmark peace agreement with the Philippine government, creating the Special Zone of Peace and Development (SZOPAD). MNLF chairman Nur Misuari was named the governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an area composed of two mainland provinces and three island provinces in which the predominantly Muslim population was granted a degree of self-rule. Occasional clashes between extremist rebels and government security forces continued in Mindanao, and many of the region’s residents called for the creation of a workable framework for meaningful autonomy and development in Muslim Mindanao.

On September 29, 2009 on Jolo Island, Philippines, an MNLF-placed explosive device blew up a convoy of military vehicles. The blast killed two U.S. Army soldiers and an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) soldier, who were part of a humanitarian mission to construct a school in the area.

In 2013, rogue elements of the MNLF conducted a violent three-week siege of Zamboanga City that killed dozens of Philippine Security Force members and displaced thousands.

Today, the MNLF consists of many factions, some of which supported negotiations between the Philippine government and the splinter group Moro Islamic Liberation front (MILF). Those negotiations led to the 2018 passing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the 2019 creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).