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UN says military intervention in Mali worsens refugee crisis

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The United Nations says French military intervention in Mali will deteriorate the refugee crisis in the country.

Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday that some 1,230 Malian refugees have already fled to the neighboring states including Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania during the past week.

Edwards further stated that the situation inside Mali is even worse as hundreds, and probably thousands, have escaped the intensified fighting between French forces and rebels in northern part of the country.

On Monday, the UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said at least 30,000 Malians have been displaced inside the country because of the recent conflicts.

France initiated military action in Mali on January 12 to allegedly halt the advance of the rebels, who control the northern parts of the West African nation.

On January 13, French fighter jets pounded rebel bases in the cities of Gao and Kidal in northern Mali.

According to the reports, French warplanes also launched an attack on the rebels’ munitions and fuel stockpiles in the town of Afhabo, about 50 kilometers from Kidal.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has backed the French intervention in Mali, saying that his country is willing “to provide whatever assistance” needed in the bombing campaign.

Chaos broke out in the African country after Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012. The coup leaders said they mounted the coup in response to the government’s inability to contain the Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country, which had been going on for two months.

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