SOME 700,000 more Malians are expected to be displaced by the new wave of fighting in the restive country in the coming months, the UN refugee agency says.
"We believe that in the near future there could be up to 300,000 people additionally displaced inside Mali, and over 400,000 additionally displaced in the neighbouring countries," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Those numbers came in addition to the existing 229,000 people already displaced inside the country and 147,000 refugees already in neighbouring nations, she said.
France launched an assault on January 11 to help the Malian army stop the advance of Islamist rebels who have been occupying northern Mali since April.
Since then the numbers of displaced people had been rising steadily, Fleming said, adding that her agency was urgently reinforcing its staff in and around the country to handle the situation.
Since the fighting and airstrikes began, 2744 Malian refugees had fled the country, with 1,411 entering Mauritania, 848 going to Burkina Faso and 485 arriving in Niger.
Many more are unable to leave Mali due to the high costs, Fleming said, pointing out that taking public transportation to Burkina Faso, for instance, cost around $US50 ($A47.64) - "for many equivalent to more than a month's earnings."
Even though the Malian army announced progress in fighting back the Islamist rebels' advance beyond their stronghold in the north, Fleming said it seemed unlikely the number of people uprooted by the conflict would subside any time soon.
"Nobody thinks this is going to be over tomorrow," she said, pointing to pre-existing differences and reports of growing ethnic tensions in the country.
It was important to secure funding and a plan for the expected surge in displaced Malians, she told AFP, although she acknowledged the numbers could turn out to be smaller and the displacement for many might be brief.
"We've been hearing horrific accounts" from refugees, she said, pointing out many had reported seeing Islamists impose strict Sharia punishments like executions and amputations.
The UN human rights office also listed a long line of abuses in the country dating back to the first fighting a year ago, including stonings, amputations, widespread rape and forced marriages of girls as young as 12 to Islamist rebels.
Children as young as 10 were being used as soldiers by extremist groups, OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters, citing details from a recent report.
The UN's World Food Program meanwhile said on Friday that its distribution of food aid in northern Mali was still suspended because of a lack of security, but that it was managing to get aid to the capital Bamako.
Some 1.8 million people live in the affected northern areas and that a third of them are already "food-insecure".
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