Fears for safety of thousands of fleeing Malians

A monitoring group said Monday it feared for the safety of tens of thousands of people who have fled their homes in Mali in the face of the offensive against Islamists controlling the north of the country. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in particular voiced alarm about reports of atrocities such as rape, abductions and killings in the troubled west African nation. "Over the last few days, internally displaced people in the north of the country have reportedly been fleeing into the desert and bush, with dire consequences for their security and access to shelter, food, water and health care," said the IDMC, an organisation that works with the United Nations to track population movements. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees had warned on Friday that 700,000 more Malians could be driven from their homes in the coming months by the new wave of fighting in the troubled country. On January 14, the United Nations had said that around 229,000 people were displaced inside Mali and another 147,000 had taken refuge in neighbouring countries. "Fighting and shelling near the inhabited cities have led many people to flee, sometimes for the second or third time since the crisis began in January 2012," the IDMC said in a report. "They are forced to leave in extremely harsh conditions, sometimes on foot, and with only very few possessions," it said. The organisation called on all parties involved in the conflict to "take all possible measures to protect the lives of people trying to seek safety away from their homes" and said they must refrain from using child soldiers. "Reports of rapes, abductions, mutilations and executions in northern and central Mali are of particular concern," it said. It also raised fears of arbitrary displacement and persecution on the basis of political opinion or ethnicity. The IDMC said the situation could become worse after Algeria closed its border with Mali and Mauritania beefed up its military presence on the border -- depriving those displaced of places to run. Most of the newly displaced have fled to the government-controlled south, the IDMC said, including the capital Bamako and the city of Mopti, although voicing concern at reports that armed groups have prevented people from seeking refuge in the south.