Internal Displacement in Mali May End in 2017 in Absence of Further Violence

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Internal displacement in Mali may stop if there is no further violence in the country, the International Organization for Migration said Friday.

"The situation remains fragile and unpredictable from a security point of view. If there is no re-occurrence of armed conflict or community violence spurring further displacement, and with the right humanitarian assistance to the displaced and host communities, I am confident that, at the end of 2017, internal displacement will be a thing of the past," IOM Mali Chief of Mission Bakary Doumbia was quoted as saying in a press release.

IDPs numbers have already decreased by over 90 percent, Doumbia added.

Over 500,000 people have been displaced due to the armed rebellion in northern Mali and the subsequent military coup in March 2012. A further 31,000 people were displaced in 2016 over communal violence. The total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the country is now 44,762, according to the Commission on Movement of Population (CMP) of the National Directorate for Social Development of the Ministry of Solidarity and Humanitarian Action.

Following the 2012 coup, Tuareg tribes seized control over large areas in the northern part of the country. Islamist groups that emerged in Mali in the last decade have recently staged several terrorist attacks in the country.