There are now at least 203,845 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the land-locked West African country.

The revised figure comes as the agency also highlighted a shortfall in fundings: “To date, we have received 41.7 per cent of the $153.7 million we required to assist the Malian refugees and IDPs,” the UNHCR spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, told reporters.

Mali has been dealing with a range of security, political and humanitarian problems since the start of the year. Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in the country’s north in January. Since then, radical Islamists have seized control of the north, where they have imposed an extremist version of Muslim Sharia law.

This instability and insecurity have led many Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, in addition to those displaced internally. In both cases their condition remains critical.

One consequence of the funding shortfall is that UNHCR cannot provide many refugees with professional activities to ensure they are “meaningfully occupied.”

“Schools have not started yet in the camps as school structures are still being built,” Mr. Edwards stated. “UNHCR fears that without schooling, children and adolescents may return to Mali, where there is a risk of recruitment by various armed groups.”

The revised IDP estimates come from the Commission on Population Movement in Mali, a working group under the UNHCR-led Protection Cluster framework. The refugee agency said the revised numbers reflect better access to areas in Mali’s north.

The revised estimates also reflect more accurate counting of IDPs in the capital, Bamako, UNHCR added, praising work done by the International Organization for Migration, a Geneva-based intergovernmental organization. In Bamako, the number of displaced people was estimated to be 46,000 in September, up from 12,000 in June and July.

Mr. Edwards stressed that indications of “actual new displacement” also exist. He cited reports of people fleeing “because of general insecurity and a deteriorating human rights situation in the north of the country.”

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to provide, at once, military and security planners to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and other partners to help frame a response to a request by Mali’s transitional authorities for such a force, and to report back within 45 days.

Upon receipt of the report, and acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Council said it was ready “to respond to the request of the Transitional authorities of Mali regarding an international military force assisting the Malian Armed Forces in recovering the occupied regions in the north of Mali.”

Chapter VII of the Charter allows the Council to use force in the face of a threat to peace or aggression, taking “such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security,” including blockades and other operations by the forces of Member States.

In August, the Council urged ECOWAS, in cooperation with the transitional authorities, the AU Commission and regional countries, to prepare detailed proposals for a stabilization force to restore the territorial integrity of the country.

Fighting between Malian Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in the country’s north in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have driven 500,000 Malians from their homes, 270,000 of them to neighbouring countries.

In addition, Islamist militants currently control the country’s north and have imposed strict Sharia law, including amputation of limbs as punishment.

The Council called on Malian rebel groups to cut off all ties to terrorist organizations, notably Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and affiliated groups, and expressed its readiness to adopt targeted sanctions against those groups which do not do so.

It also urged the Transitional authorities, rebels and other legitimate representatives of the local population in the northern Mali to engage, as soon as possible, in credible negotiations to seek a sustainable political solution in conformity with the country’s unity, and demanded that all groups in the north cease all human rights violations such as attacks against civilians, sexual violence, recruitments of child soldiers and forced displacements.

Today’s Council resolution reiterated “grave concern” at the continuing deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the north of Mali, the increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements including AQIM, affiliated groups and other extremist groups, and its consequences for the countries of the Sahel and beyond.

In addition, it strongly condemned the abuses of human rights committed “by armed rebels, terrorist and other extremist groups, including violence against its civilians, notably women and children, killings, hostage-taking, pillaging, theft, destruction of cultural and religious sites and recruitment of child soldiers,” and stressed that some of these acts might amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Women are the primary victims of the current crisis and have been disproportionately affected by the situation in the north,” Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic said in a news release. “Their human rights to employment, education and access to basic social services have been seriously curtailed.”

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

Šimonovic said Islamic groups are now in control following power shifts since the March coup. One displaced woman he interviewed in the northern town of Mopti said she could no longer return to her hometown of Gao, where she had been a merchant, because women under the strict application of Islamic Sharia law cannot work.

But “most disturbing,” according to the news release, were reports that Islamist groups were compiling lists of women who have had children out of wedlock, or who were unmarried and pregnant. “This could indicate that these women are at imminent risk of being subjected to cruel and inhuman[e] punishment,” Šimonovic said.

He said that, at the beginning of the conflict, there were reports of summary executions of members of the military, rapes, looting, forced displacement and forced child recruitment with the advance of the Tuareg rebel group Azawad National Liberation Movement, known by the French acronym MNLA.

“These were appalling violations of human rights,” said Šimonovic. “But they were largely ad hoc in nature.”

Since Islamic groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had taken control, the region was witnessing human rights abuses of a “different character,” he noted.

“Civil and political rights are being severely restricted as a result of the imposition of a strict interpretation of Sharia law, and systemic cruel and inhuman[e] punishments are being implemented, including executions, mutilations and stonings,” Šimonovic said.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says children have been deprived of their rights to education in the north because many teachers had fled, leading to the closure of schools. More ominously, extreme poverty, lack of employment and education is “making it easy for young people to fall prey to armed extreme Islamist groups, who continue to lure youth and children to join their cause.”

In a “particularly grave” case, one witness told Šimonovic of three children who were reportedly maimed while being trained on how to use improvised explosive devices.

In the Government-controlled south, Šimonovic pointed to reports of continuing torture and inhumane prison conditions. He noted that at least 30 participants of an April counter-coup remained in detention, and many had allegedly not had charges brought against them. Also, the whereabouts of 20 soldiers involved in the counter-coup had yet to be confirmed.

“It is essential that the authorities investigate these cases of disappearances in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Šimonovic, who received assurances from Mali’s Minister of Justice that thorough investigations would be promptly completed.

“Current violations are to a great degree symptoms of the chronic disrespect for human rights that already existed in Mali in the past,” Šimonovic said. “There is a need to address these root causes, including widespread corruption, mismanagement of public funds, inequality between the elite and general population, and nepotism, amongst others.”

Šimonovic emphasized the need for investigations into the recent human rights violations in both the north and the south, and said it was essential the perpetrators be held to account as a precondition for reconciliation and social cohesion.

He noted that any UN support to Malian security forces “must” conform to the UN’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, which prohibits the UN from supporting security forces involved in grave human rights violations.

To advance women’s human rights and empower them, it was essential that measures be taken to promote their participation in public life. Šimonovic said he was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s recognition that women have an important role to play in building peace and reconciliation as well as the economic prosperity of the country.

“One concrete way would be to introduce a 30 per cent quota for women in Parliament ahead of the next legislative elections,” Mr. Šimonovic said, adding that OHCHR was ready to support the Malian authorities in this regard, including through appointing a Human Rights Adviser to the UN Country Team in the capital, Bamako.

“We need to redefine our priorities, invest in the real economy and agree on a new fairer world order,” President Sall said in his address to the General Debate of the Assembly’s 67th session, taking place at UN Headquarters in New York.

“We call for another vision of relations with Africa, a vision where it will not be about the treatment of Africa and the Africans, but dealing with Africa and the Africans in a concerted and more equitable partnership, taking into account the priorities and the interests of everyone,” he added.

President Sall emphasized that the African Continent, which had already endured centuries of slavery and exploitation, could not afford “to act again as Trojan horse and give over its resources in a competition that would push it further to the margins of progress and well-being.”

Echoing other leaders who had addressed the General Debate earlier on Tuesday, the Senegalese President called for greater representation by African nations in the Security Council, noting that the African continent counted the largest number of countries at the UN and that it was “a matter of justice and common sense.”

Turning to regional peace and security issues, President Sall urged the Security Council to adopt a greater roll in resolving the vacuum of power in northern Mali where, he said, “organized and heavily armed terrorist groups, living off all sorts of trafficking, have been occupying in complete illegality two thirds of the country, sowing despair among the population and destroying symbols of World Cultural Heritage.”

“Northern Mali has become a lawless area, used as a safe haven for recruitment and training by the international terrorist nebula,” President Sall warned, adding that the Security Council has “the obligation to act in order to bring an end to such a situation.”

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

President Sall also reiterated Senegal’s “firm rejection” of any partition of Mali and his condemnation of the March 2012 military coup which saw rebel Malian soldiers take control of the country and announce the dissolution of the Government led by then-President Amadou Toumani Toure.

Meanwhile, the Senegalese leader reserved praise for the work done by Guinea-Bissau’s Transitional Government as it works towards national reconciliation and the organization of credible elections following its unconstitutional change of government earlier this year. He noted, however, that the country deserved the continued support of the international community as it was also beset by “faithless and lawless foreign drug traffickers.”

Scores of the world’s heads of State and government and other high-level officials are expected to present their views and comment on issues of individual national and international relevance at the Assembly’s General Debate, which ends on 1 October.

In a press statement read by Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for this month, the 15-member body voiced its concern about the “increasing entrenchment” of terrorist elements in the country and about the human rights violations perpetrated by rebel and extremist groups in the north.

Earlier this week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, condemned the ongoing human rights violations in northern Mali, including cruel punishments such as amputations and the stoning to death of an unmarried couple, and called on the Government and the international community to urgently address the crisis.

“According to credible reports that my office has received, the various armed groups currently occupying northern Mali have been committing serious human rights violations and possibly war crimes,” Pillay said.

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

The Council, which was briefed on the situation by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, welcomed the appointment of a Government of National Unity in Mali, and voiced its support to the work of the Interim President, Dioncounda Traoré.

The Council called on the transitional authorities “to continue ongoing efforts towards the strengthening of democratic institutions and the restoration of constitutional order” in Mali, through the holding of elections by the end of the transition. It also repeated its demand that all members of Malian armed forces cease immediately any interference in the work of the transitional authorities.

In his briefing, Feltman called on the Council and the wider international community to support efforts to develop an integrated strategy to tackle the challenges in the Sahel region of West Africa, which are not only political but also involve security, humanitarian resilience and human rights.

“The deep-seated fragilities stretching across the broad Sahel region of Africa are a matter of growing concern to the people and governments of the region, as well as to the broader international community and this Council,” he stated. “The threats and challenges cut across borders and disciplines and their solutions must be cooperative and comprehensive.”

The report, produced by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), states that out of the 435,000 displaced persons, nearly 262,000 have registered with the UN as refugees in neighbouring countries including Niger, Burkina Faso and Algeria, while some 174,000 are internally displaced in the northern towns of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal.

In January, fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led to massive displacement.

Mali is also located in the Sahel region, a semi-arid belt crossing the north of Africa, which exposes it to a risk of famine. The conflict, coupled with food insecurity, has led to a complex humanitarian emergency, the report states.

The report warns that refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in urgent need of food, shelter and water, and warns that the food security situation is deteriorating in the country as a plague of locusts in northern Mali is now spreading and is threatening agricultural production.

In addition, the report, which was released yesterday, notes that health conditions are also a cause for concern as 140 cholera cases, including 11 deaths, have been reported in the Gao and Ansongo districts in the northern part of the country.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that some 4.6 million people are now in need of food assistance. So far, the World Food programme has reached 360,000 people in southern Mali, and over 148,000 people in the north, according to the report. To address this issue, the food relief agency is also organizing activities which include reforestation, prevention of erosion and desertification and soil restoration that will help people achieve longer-term food security.

Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, had called for more funds to assist Malian refugees. So far, donors have provided $95.3 million to respond to the crisis of the $213 million required.

“The humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly because of the inadequacy of the response. The situation in Mali is desperate, but not hopeless,” stressed the Director of Operations of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way the humanitarian response is funded. We can avoid a disaster, but only if the opportunities for a quick scaling up of the response are not missed,” he added.

In January, fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels resumed in northern Mali. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, and political instability in the wake of a coup d’état in March, have uprooted more than 420,000 people, according to OCHA, with many fleeing to the neighbouring countries of Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso due to insecurity.

These countries, however, are among the most severely affected by the food and nutrition crisis raging across the Sahel region of West Africa, which has put 18 million lives at risk.

During a three-day mission to Mali, Ging visited displacement camps in Mopti in the north, where he heard first-hand the traumatic stories of violence against women and children who had fled their homes.

In Bamako, the capital, Mr. Ging told reporters that “there appears to be a misconception that without a solution to the security and political crisis in the north of the country, little can be done to scale up the humanitarian response. In fact, 80 per cent of the country’s humanitarian needs are in the south, where there is relative stability.”

While work is being carried out by national and international organizations in the northern part of the country, Mr. Ging said the lack of funding is hampering the scaling up of activities in the region. Currently, only 42 per cent of the $214 million required for the humanitarian response has been received.

Health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene are the most critically underfunded sectors, Ging said, adding that this could quickly lead to the outbreak of epidemics like cholera, which is threatening to spread throughout West Africa.

“The decision strongly condemned the acts of destruction of mausoleums in the World Heritage property of Timbuktu and called for an end to these ‘repugnant acts,” the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a news release today.

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels resumed in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, and a deepening crisis due to a coup d’état in March, have uprooted nearly 320,000 people, with many of them fleeing to neighbouring countries.

There had been reports earlier this year of rebel groups looting centres containing thousands of ancient books and documents in Timbuktu. In addition, there have been reports of the destruction of three sacred tombs – the Mausoleums of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya – that are part of the Timbuktu site, which was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The 21-member Committee came to its decision yesterday in St. Petersburg yesterday, where it has been holding its 36th session. It meets once a year, and is responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List.

Late last week, it had accepted a request from the Government of Mali to place Timbuktu, as well as the Tomb of Askia, on the List of World Heritage in Danger, which is designed to inform the international community of threats to the outstanding universal values for which a property has been inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.

The Committee also asked Mali’s neighbours to help prevent the trafficking in cultural objects from the sites, and urged the African Union and the international community to do everything possible to help protect Timbuktu, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1988.

Over the past few days, UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the President of the General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, have expressed their concern over the situation in Timbuktu, and condemned the attacks which damaged the mausoleums.

In its decision made in St. Petersburg, the World Heritage Committee called on UNESCO’s Ms. Bokova to create the special fund for Mali, and appealed to all UNESCO Member States, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to provide financial resources to the fund.

The Committee also asked that Ms. Bokova send a mission to Mali, when possible, with a view to assessing, together with national and local authorities concerned as well as the local authorities, the extent of the damage and destruction and define urgent conservation needs.

The Committee recognized efforts already undertaken to help Mali safeguard its heritage, and the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States and the countries of the region to help the people of Mali resolve its crisis.

Earlier this year, UNESCO and the Government of Mali defined measures to safeguard World Heritage Properties in the country’s north – including Timbuktu – following reports of wilful damage to mausoleums at the site.

The agreed-on steps included Mali finalizing its accession to the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which, amongst others, penalizes the intentional destruction of cultural heritage. Malian authorities had also requested the inscription of Timbuktu and the Tomb of Askia on the Committee’s List of World Heritage in Danger – which it did in late June.

Mali will also draft a report on priority measures for its World Heritage sites, in line with international heritage conventions, and it will request technical and financial assistance from UNESCO and the international community.

For its part, amongst other actions, UNESCO agreed to help the Government of Mali in reinforcing protection for all of its cultural properties, and raise awareness in neighbouring countries and among the international community of the situation to help fight the illicit trade in cultural artefacts.

“Up to now, a number of airports are still closed, but as soon as they will re-open, we intend to fly to them,” WFP’s spokesperson Elizabeth Byrs said at a press conference in Geneva, following the landing of a WFP flight in Kayes, in northern Mali, on Thursday.

WFP activities have been disrupted in the country’s north, following a rebel takeover in early April, and 2,000 metric tons of food commodities were feared to have been looted from its warehouses.

The food situation in the country has been worsening since November 2011, with irregular and limited rainfall resulting in a significant drop in food production – grain production has fallen by 41 per cent compared to last year.

According to WFP, in a country where an overwhelming majority of the population relies on rain-fed agriculture as their main source of food and income, such a deficit has serious consequences for the estimated 3.5 million people living in food insecure regions.

Even before the Tuareg rebellion uprooted at least 200,000 people, the northern part of Mali was facing alarming rates of malnutrition, as was most of the Sahel region of West Africa.

On Monday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the global community to act quickly to address what he described as a “cascading crisis” sweeping the Sahel, where 15 million people have been affected by the drought and conflict-related crisis in the area.