French ground troops deployed around the
central Malian town of Niono on Wednesday in a bid to halt any further advance
by Islamist rebels who have seized the
nearby village of Diabaly, Malian military sources said.
"French forces have secured Niono to
stop the Islamists advancing to Segou while the Malian army is securing the
border area with Mauritania," said one source. "They are now
encircled and a final assault is only a matter of time."
In a sixth day of air assaults, French
fighter jets also struck the headquarters of the Islamic police in Niafunke,
near the ancient caravan town of Timbuktu, local residents said.
However, German government said it will
contribute two transport planes to ESCWAs for Mali mission against Islamist
rebels.
On the other hand, United Nations officials on Tuesday warned of a humanitarian crisis in Mali as hundreds of thousands of people flee the ongoing violence there.
Despite five days of French airstrikes the rebels have extended their reach, taking over a strategically important military camp in the central Malian town of Diabaly on Monday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has estimated that 4.2 (m) million Malians will need humanitarian help in 2013.
"The number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) is estimated is at about 330,000 as of yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Geneva on Tuesday.
The military clashes in northern Mali are adding to the already enormous numbers of people who have fled its recent conflicts, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.
Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said 1,230 refugees from Mali arrived in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania during the past week as a result of the clashes between the French-backed Malian army and al-Qaida linked Islamist groups.
Edwards said that the situation inside Mali is less clear, where the agency estimates there are hundreds, and possibly thousands, who have fled the recent escalation in fighting with French forces taking on Mali's rebels in the northern territories.
In 2012, there were about 200,000 people who fled their homes in northern Mali and became displaced within the country while 144,500 Malians fled to neighboring countries, Edwards said.
"Our major concern is that children are separated from their families, which can make them much more vulnerable to many forms of abuse, including recruitment and sexual violence," said UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado, during Tuesday's news conference in Geneva.
Also speaking in Geneva, Elisabeth Byrs, a World Food Program spokesperson, said the organization needed 129 million (US) dollars to be able to assist displaced Malians.
France plunged headfirst into the conflict in its former colony last week, bombarding the insurgents' training camps, arms depots and safe houses in an effort to shatter the Islamist domination of a region many fear could become a launching pad for attacks on the West and a magnet for extremists from around the world.
French troops bombed the rebels in an attempt to stop their advance toward the country's capital, Bamako.
After a punishing bombing campaign failed to halt the advance of al-Qaida-linked fighters, France pledged Tuesday to triple the size of its force in Mali, sending in hundreds more troops as it prepared for a land assault to dislodge the militants occupying the northern half of the country.
The move reversed France's earlier insistence on providing only aerial and logistical support for a military intervention led by African ground troops.
APTN