A long road back to normal

Over two years after the Marawi siege, life seemed to be back to normal in most of the city center as schools, shops, and government offices opened once again. But 15 to 30 minutes away, you will find a transitory site here and there, some covering a wider stretch of land than others. While they differ in size and form, most houses were designed to last five years. That’s how long the IDPs were allowed to stay in these transitory shelters.

There are 14 transitory sites inside Marawi, and one in Lanao del Norte, home to thousands of people displaced by the siege. Majority of them used to live in the Most Affected Area (MAA) or Ground Zero and have found their homes totally destroyed by the conflict or bulldozed to make way for new developments.

Around 120,000 people in and around the Muslim city of Marawi in the Southern Philippines are still displaced following a siege of their city in 2017. While the siege lasted five months, the recovery of the city, livelihoods and markets takes much longer. Many people have only now moved from tents to transitory shelters, where life is miserable: water has to be trucked in, and sanitary conditions are poor. The community lockdown in the Philippines caused by COVID-19 has complicated lives further, adding an extra burden on the vulnerable population. MSF provides NCD care, mainly to treat diabetes and hypertension, and mental health counselling. (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders)