Hundreds of Indonesians have been evacuated after a clash between Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed sultan and Malaysian security forces in Lahad Datu, Sabah.
“We have evacuated 162 palm plantation workers from Lahad Datu to Embara complex, about 6 kilometers away,” said P.L.E. Priatna, the Foreign Ministry’s director for information and media, on Monday.
Priatna said the workers would stay at the evacuation center indefinitely until the situation was under control.
Indonesian consulate general for Kota Kinabalu, Soepeno Sahid, confirmed that the workers were safe. He said local officials were not allowing boats to go near the conflict area and that boat crews were given days off from work.
Tension broke when Malaysian police and military surrounded an estimated 100 to 300 Filipinos in a farming village after they landed by boat from the nearby Philippines to insist the area belongs to their Islamic leader.
The leader, Jamalul Kiram III, 74, claims to be the heir to the Islamic sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of the southern Philippines and the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo.
The shootout late on Saturday in the Borneo town of Semporna followed Friday’s firefight between Jamalul’s followers and Malaysian security forces, which left 12 intruders and two police officers dead.
The five deaths in Semporna — 300 kilometers from the site of the three-week standoff — came after police were “ambushed” by gunmen during a security sweep, police said.
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