Aid groups warn of civilian danger, say they can't reach key Mali town

Malian soldiers are seen on their way to Markala, Mali, some 240 kms (150 miles) north of Bamako, Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. (AP Photo / Thibault Camus)

BAMAKO, Mali -- Warning that civilians are in danger, aid officials said they cannot reach a town where Islamist militants and French forces battled for a week, and a town not far from the capital remained on high alert Friday after a reported jihadist sighting.

Doctors Without Borders has been trying to get to the town of Konna since Monday but all roads leading to the community in central Mali have been closed by the Malian military, said Malik Allaouna, director of operations for the group known as MSF by its initials in French.

"Despite our repeated requests, we are still being refused access to the Konna region," he said. "It is essential to allow the delivery of neutral and impartial medical and humanitarian aid in the areas affected by the conflict."

The fate of Konna was unclear Friday, more than a week after Islamists first advanced on the town in a move that prompted the French military to launch its offensive in this vast desert nation in northwest Africa.

A Malian military official said Thursday that the country's forces were in control of the town, but the claim could not be independently corroborated.

Further to the south, forces remained on high alert in Banamba, a town just 144 kilometres from the capital, Bamako, after a reported sighting of jihadists in the vicinity. Roughly 100 Malian soldiers sped Thursday to Banamba, which would be the closest the extremists reportedly have come to Bamako.

France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups, whose tentacles extend not only over a territory the size of Afghanistan in Mali, but also another 1,000 kilometres to the northeast in Algeria, where fighters stormed a BP-operated plant and took dozens of foreigners hostages, including Americans. They demanded the immediate end of the hostilities in Mali, with one commander, Oumar Ould Hamaha, saying that they are now "globalizing the conflict" in revenge for the military assault on Malian soil.

A city official in Banamba who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said they had received reports that a rebel convoy had left the jihadist-controlled town of Diabaly on the road headed to Banamba.

On Thursday, France increased its troop strength in Mali to 1,400, said French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

A former French colony, Mali once enjoyed a reputation as one of West Africa's most stable democracies with the majority of its 15.8 million people practicing a moderate form of Islam. That changed last March, following a coup in the capital which created the disarray that allowed Islamist extremists to take over the main cities in the distant north.