The group of some 200 Filipinos landed at a coastal village in the Lahad Datu district of Sabah, on Malaysian Borneo, saying that the territory was theirs.
The Lahad Datu crisis began when a group of at least 100 clan members were led into the region in early February by Agbimuddin Kiram, the younger brother of the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III.