After a spate of kidnappings and renewed clashes with the Philippines’ armed forces over the past year, the Islamist militants of Abu Sayyaf have forged a reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s most radical and brutal jihadi groups. The high-profile beheadings in 2016 of two Canadian hostages has focused global attention on the remote, impoverished and underdeveloped region of the southern Philippines where Abu Sayyaf operates.

The violence has heightened the sense of urgency to find a solution to the long-running insurgency and placed an intense spotlight on President Rodrigo Duterte’s strategy. So far, Duterte’s comments on Abu Sayyaf have, perhaps unsurprisingly, been contradictory. He has warned against a military solution and hinted at negotiations, while at the same time, in his typically outlandish style, threatening to ‘‘eat the militants alive,” or at least ‘‘crush’’, ‘‘erase’’ and ‘‘destroy’’ them. ...