CHRISTIANS in Mali are "living in fear", a charity has warned, as French and West African forces fight to recapture towns seized by Islamist militants.

The charity Open Doors reported this week that the Church in Mali has experienced a "sharp increase in hostilities" since last year, when rebels captured the north of the country, destroying church buildings and imposing a radical version of sharia ( News, 13 April 2012).

Last weekend, The Sunday Telegraph reported that militants had "laid waste" the Roman Catholic church in Diabaly, a town in central Mali, which has since been retaken by French ground troops. A resident of Timbuktu, a northern town seized by the militants last year, told the newspaper that, in the wake of the French intervention, his wife had removed her veil.

French forces have been conducting air strikes in the country for two weeks, and 2500 French troops have been pledged to support the 5000 troops from West African countries.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister, David Cameron, reaffirmed on Monday that British troops would not play a combat role in Mali: "When it comes to military-type roles, our view is that they should very much be regionally led."

Although the French intervention has the backing of the United Nations and the European Union, it has raised concerns. On Monday, the President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, warned that "military intervention in Mali . . . would inflame the conflict in this region."

In December, people living in northern Mali told Human Rights Watch that intervention might prove a catalyst for "acts of collective punishment", particularly against the Tuareg people, some of whom were involved in the uprising before the coup in Mali in March last year. The organisation has called on Mali's Prime Minister to tackle an "abusive military" and "rising ethnic tensions" in the country.

These concerns were echoed in a report by the United Nations, published on Friday of last week, which recounted "serious human rights violations", perpetrated both in the north of the country and in areas under government control and "linked to longstanding and unresolved issues". Rupert Colville, a spokesman, said that the rape of women and girls had been "repeatedly used in the north to intimidate people, and break any form of resistance". Girls as young as 12 had been forcibly married to radical Islamists and sexually abused.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bamako, the Rt Revd Jean Zerbo, has asked for a humanitarian corridor to be opened in Mali, and called on the international community to provide support, so that Caritas Mali can "help the increasing number of displaced and refugees". The charity's office in Mopti was closed earlier this month because of intensive fighting in the surrounding areas. The UN refugee agency is expecting to help up to 710,000 internally displaced people and refugees.