UN bracing for 700,000 displaced Malians

Some 700,000 more Malians could be driven from their homes by the new wave of fighting in the restive country in the coming months, the UN refugee agency said yesterday. “We believe that in the near future there could be up to 300,000 people additionally displaced inside Mali, and over 400,000 additionally displaced in the neighboring countries,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. Those numbers add to the 229,000 people already displaced inside Mali and 147,000 refugees in neighboring nations, she said. France launched an assault on Jan. 11 to help the Malian army stop the advance of rebels who had been occupying northern Mali since April. Since then, the numbers of displaced people have been rising steadily, Fleming said, adding the agency was reinforcing its staff in the region. Since the fighting and airstrikes began, 2,744 Malian refugees had fled the country, with 1,411 entering Mauritania, 848 going to Burkina Faso and 485 arriving in Niger. Many more are unable to leave Mali due to the costs involved, Fleming said, pointing out that taking public transportation to Burkina Faso, for instance, cost about $ 50 (38 euros) — “for many equivalent to more than a month’s earnings.” Even though the Malian army announced progress in fighting back the rebels’ advance beyond their stronghold in the north, Fleming said it seemed unlikely the number of people uprooted by the conflict would subside any time soon. “Nobody thinks this is going to be over tomorrow,” she said, pointing to pre-existing differences and reports of growing ethnic tensions in the country. It was important to secure funding and a plan for the expected surge in displaced Malians, she told AFP. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also voiced concern yesterday about how the new phase of the conflict in Mali was affecting civilians. Many had fled the central town of Konna, which Mali’s military claimed to have retaken yesterday after days of intense battles, it said. “More than 550 of those who have fled Konna and its surrounding areas have turned up in nearby Sevare,” the ICRC said in a statement, adding that others had fled to the other side of the Niger river. Fleming meanwhile said the UNHCR had been shocked by what new Malian refugees were saying about the situation inside the country, including the militants’ use of strict punishments like executions and amputations. The UN human rights office (OHCHR) also listed a long line of abuses in the country dating back to the first fighting a year ago, including stonings, amputations, widespread rape and forced marriages of girls as young as 12 to insurgents. Children as young as 10 were being used as soldiers by extremist groups, OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters, citing details from a recent report. The UN’s World Food Program meanwhile said yesterdy that its distribution of food aid in northern Mali remained suspended because of a lack of security, but that it was managing to get aid to the capital Bamako. “The trucks (to the north) are packed and ready to go as soon as the security situation allows,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva. She said some 1.8 million people live in the affected areas and that a third of them are already “food-insecure.” The ICRC meanwhile said it had people on the ground and would be able to provide 10,000 families in the affected central Mopti region with food aid. It said it had provided the Sevare hospital with equipment and the Gao hospital with equipment and two medical staff members. It also said it had provided 40,000 litres of fuel for Gao’s power plant to ensure the town had enough water for two weeks.