'Mali displaced too scared to return'
2013-02-22 18:40
Geneva - Tens of thousands of people who fled northern Mali
are too scared to return despite the French-led military intervention to root
out Islamist militia there, the Red Cross said on Friday.
"There has not been a wave of returns, ... and I don't
think there will be a wave of returnees any time soon," said Jean-Nicolas
Marti, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross' mission in Mali
and Niger.
He said the continued unrest was discouraging many would-be
returnees.
"There is also fear among some based on their ethnic
identities of possible acts of retaliation by the Malian armed forces,"
Marti said, adding that he could not confirm that any such acts had taken
place.
The UN meanwhile cautioned Friday that it had "heard
horrifying reports from the north of human rights violations, recruitment of
children and rising sexual violence".
"Protection of civilians is an urgent humanitarian
priority, not least in terms of the risk of explosive remnants of war and
mines," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination for
Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters.
Tens of thousands fled northern Mali after Islamic
extremists grabbed the vast territory last April, and tens of thousands more
fled after the French-led intervention began in January to hunt them down,
Marti said.
French-led forces wrested the main northern cities back from
the al-Qaeda-linked rebels within weeks, but insurgency has continued.
"The situation is worrying"
A suicide bombing on Thursday in Kidal in the far north and
an attack by jihadists in Gao were signs that unrest still plagued the region,
Marti said. Five people were killed on Friday in two more suicide bombings in
the town of Tessalit.
"Contrary to what some might have thought following
French and Malian troops' recapturing of the main towns, the situation is not
at all stable or calm," he added.
While the ICRC did not expect to see mass returns, Marti
said lone family members would go back to check on their property and scout out
the security situation, but these were only "return trips".
The ICRC was also concerned about the situation of prisoners,
Marti said, pointing out that the organisation had visited prisons in Bamako
and Mopti, as well as at the Gao police station.
While he could not reveal what they had found there, he said
"the situation is worrying" and that the findings had been reported
to the authorities.
"There is a lot of accumulated hate and tension,"
he cautioned.
- SAPA
