A Malian soldier stands guard in front of a strategic bridge in Markala, approximately 40 km outside Segou on the road to Diabaly, in central Mali, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. Fighting raged in one Mali town, airstrikes hit another and army troops raced to protect a third, on Thursday, the seventh day of the French-led military intervention to wrest back Mali's north from al Qaida-linked groups. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
A Malian soldier stands guard in front of a strategic bridge in Markala, approximately 40 km outside Segou on the road to Diabaly, in central Mali, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. Fighting raged in one Mali town, airstrikes hit another and army troops raced to protect a third, on Thursday, the seventh day of the French-led military intervention to wrest back Mali's north from al Qaida-linked groups. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
In this picture released by the French Army Communication Audiovisual office (ECPAD) French armored vehicules drive to the north of Mali, outside Bamako, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists on Wednesday, military officials said, announcing the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat "within hours." (AP Photo/Arnaud Roine, ECPAD)
In this picture released by the French Army Communication Audiovisual office (ECPAD) French military vehicles drive to the north of Mali, at an undisclosed location, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists on Wednesday, military officials said, announcing the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat "within hours." (AP Photo/Arnaud Roine, ECPAD)
In this picture released by the French Army Communication Audiovisual office (ECPAD) French armored vehicules drive to the north of Mali, outside Bamako, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists on Wednesday, military officials said, announcing the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat "within hours." (AP Photo/Arnaud Roine, ECPAD)
Young men play football in Bamako, Mali, Tuesday Jan. 15 2013. French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign Tuesday to wrest control of a small Malian town from armed Islamist extremists who seized the area, including its strategic military camp. A a convoy of 40 to 50 trucks carrying French troops crossed into Mali from Ivory Coast as France prepares for a possible land assault. Several thousand soldiers from the nations neighboring Mali are also expected to begin arriving in coming days. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Warning that civilians are in danger, aid officials said they cannot reach a town where Islamist militants and French forces battled for a week, and a town not far from the capital remained on high alert Friday after a reported jihadist sighting.
Doctors Without Borders has been trying to get to the town of Konna since Monday but all roads leading to the community in central Mali have been closed by the Malian military, said Malik Allaouna, director of operations for the group known as MSF by its initials in French.
"Despite our repeated requests, we are still being refused access to the Konna region," he said. "It is essential to allow the delivery of neutral and impartial medical and humanitarian aid in the areas affected by the conflict."
The fate of Konna was unclear Friday, more than a week after Islamists first advanced on the town in a move that prompted the French military to launch its offensive in this vast desert nation in northwest Africa.
A Malian military official said Thursday that the country's forces were in control of the town, but the claim could not be independently corroborated.
Further to the south, forces remained on high alert in Banamba, a town just 90 miles (144 kilometers) from the capital, Bamako, after a reported sighting of jihadists in the vicinity. Roughly 100 Malian soldiers sped Thursday to Banamba, which would be the closest the extremists reportedly have come to Bamako.
France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups, whose tentacles extend not only over a territory the size of Afghanistan in Mali, but also another 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) to the northeast in Algeria, where fighters stormed a BP-operated plant and took dozens of foreigners hostages, including Americans. They demanded the immediate end of the hostilities in Mali, with one commander, Oumar Ould Hamaha, saying that they are now "globalizing the conflict" in revenge for the military assault on Malian soil.
A city official in Banamba who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said they had received reports that a rebel convoy had left the jihadist-controlled town of Diabaly on the road headed to Banamba.
On Thursday, France increased its troop strength in Mali to 1,400, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
A former French colony, Mali once enjoyed a reputation as one of West Africa's most stable democracies with the majority of its 15.8 million people practicing a moderate form of Islam. That changed last March, following a coup in the capital which created the disarray that allowed Islamist extremists to take over the main cities in the distant north.
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Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.
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