Possible Mali interventions worries NGOs

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DAKAR, Senegal, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Food insecurity and mass displacements may occur should regional forces intervene in Mali, members of the non-governmental organization community said.

The Economic Community of West African States said it was frustrated with events in Mali as it considered military intervention. The country was divided when Islamic rebels took control in northern Mali following a series of political calamities.

Members of NGO community told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN that more than 700,000 people could be displaced by military intervention in northern Mali.

"It is almost impossible to predict what is going to happen where and when -- everything is very broad," said Philippe Conraud, West Africa emergency coordinator with Oxfam, from neighboring Senegal.

Destruction of the infrastructure in Mali could restrict access to basic services and food insecurity would increase in the event of military intervention. Doctors of the World warns that malnutrition rates have doubled in one year in Mali.

Last week, Cheick Modibo Diarra resigned as prime minister after he was arrested in Bamako by soldiers who supported a coup this year.

Military leaders had said Diarra was in the way of political developments in the country.