(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121007_philippines_rebels_deal_213a.photoblog600.jpg)Jay Directo / AFP - Getty ImagesPresident Benigno Aquino announced on Sunday that a deal had been reached with Muslim separatist rebels group Moro Islamic Liberation Front to end a decades-long insurgency that has left more than 150,000 people dead.By ReutersMANILA - The Philippine government and Muslim rebels have agreed a peace deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, President Benigno Aquino said on Sunday, paving the way for a political and economic revival of the country's troubled south.
The agreement sets in train a roadmap to create a new Bangsamoro autonomous region in Muslim-dominated areas of the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country before the end of Aquino's term in 2016. Bangsamoro refers to Muslim and non-Islamic minority people in the southern Philippines.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) Expectations are high that after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, both the government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group will work side-by-side to realize the promises contained in the agreement, to be signed on October 15 in Manila and witnessed by Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
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