Aid operations to help 457,000 people who have fled their homes in war-torn Mali are facing a massive funding shortfall, the UN's refugee agency warned Friday. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said the agency needed $144 million to provide food, shelter, health-care, water and sanitation and education. "So far we have received only 32 per cent of this amount," he told reporters. In addition to those displaced at home, there are more than 175,000 Malian refugees in surrounding countries -- with 75,850 in Mauritania, over 49,000 in Burkina Faso, and some 50,000 in Niger.

Mali's prime minister on Thursday urged France to maintain a military presence in its former colony, as troops began an early withdrawal three months after ousting armed Islamists from the country's north. Diango Cissoko made the plea on a tour of Gao, the first visit to the battle-scarred northern city by a head of government since it was overrun by Al Qaeda-linked militants more than a year ago. The premier, who was welcomed by locals and military personnel, paid tribute to the French troops who intervened to liberate northern Mali from the armed militias in January.

Thousands of refugees from war-torn Mali have crossed into neighbouring Niger amid fears of reprisals by the country's military who are battling Islamist fighters, the UN refugee agency said Friday. Almost 6,000 people, mainly women and children, arrived on foot or on donkeys, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "They say they fled because of the ongoing war in northern Mali, and for fear of possible reprisals by the Malian army. They also said that more people are on their way to Niger," Edwards told reporters.

The UN's human rights body on Tuesday accused Malian soldiers of carrying out retaliatory attacks that appeared to target specific ethnic groups, and demanded that Mali investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. The preliminary findings of a UN mission to Mali last month showed "that the recent military intervention in the north of Mali was followed by a serious escalation of retaliatory violence by government soldiers who appear to be targeting members of the Peuhl, Tuareg and Arab ethnic groups," UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang said.