zainhab and others are learning to dye cloth, an important in northern mali.t may eventually allow her to earn a living. i hope to find work so we afford to send our children to school. that will give them the chance for a brighter future. but everyone realizes that the new beginning is fraught with uncertainty. if the u.n. forces pull out, islamists would easily timbuktu. these are police officers are western germany. they're committed to the u.n. mission for one year. there's always danger. we're very exposed and could come under attack from both sides of the street. there has been an increasing number of incidents on fridays, which is an important day in islam. terrorists often choose it to mount their attacks, so it's an uneasy feeling. their mission is to protect civilians and personal are an important part of their job. it's often the best source of information on what's happening in the region, whether unfamiliar people have been spotted for instance. the jihadists are constantly infiltrating the surrounding villages. another important aspect is keeping

genie: the latest reports now from mali's a new fighting has broken out in a northern city. a monitoring group on site says a battle has broken out with al qaeda local branch. that comes after an attack on tuesday killed four people, including one u.n. peacekeeper. al qaeda has claimed that attack. let's bring in melissa bell. these attacks in mali have grown since over the weekend. bring us up to speed. melissa: the latest attacks have been claimed by the islamic al qaeda in the grip -- sorry. over the course of the last few years, with french intervention, there have been sporadic outbursts of violence. we are talking about the middle of mali, the part that separates the north from the south. after this was announced yesterday, with the peacekeeper killed and civilians, following a weekend in which we saw a number of peacekeepers killed on sunday, in the ambush, two days earlier, five malian soldiers were killed. it was because the jihadist forces and the independent tour egg rebels, their french decided to intervene in 2013. it is considered a danger to the rest of mali.