Keyword: Mali

Britain says it is to deploy about 330 military personnel to Mali and West Africa to support French forces unseating Islamist rebels.

French paratroopers have taken control of the airport and roads surrounding fabled Malian desert town of Timbuktu as Islamists flee.

French and Malian forces secure the northern Mali town of Gao, once an Islamist stronghold, and advance on to the key town of Timbuktu.

Military sources say special forces to be sent to Niger uranium sites run by French state-owned company Areva as threat of attacks rise over Mali.

French military is embarassed after photo of one of its soldiers wearing 'Call of Duty' bandana last weekend near Niono in central Mali, goes viral.

Former British PM argues more help must be given to the French military fighting Islamists in Mali, warning European security is at stake.

The French ‘military intervention’ that began in Mali on January 11th is also a war of words in which the socialist government has adopted semantics akin to neo-conservative rhetoric, argues Mediapart political correspondent Stéphane Alliès, who presents here some choice examples of ministerial sleight of tongue.

The US Air Force begins transporting French troops and equipment from France to Mali for the military campaign there against Islamist militants.

French and Malian troops have seized the key Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza from militant Islamists, France's defence minister has announced.

French troops' initial clashes have shown that the desert fighters are better trained and equipped than France had expected before intervention.

Move comes as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius warns that the chaos in the African country is a risk for all of Europe.

President François Hollande has just become involved in a large-scale war in Mali. Already some 800 French troops are on the ground in the African country, with the number expected to increase to 2,500 in the coming days and weeks. Meanwhile French aircraft have been carrying out strikes across the country. President Hollande sent in the troops last Friday, January 11th, after Mali's interim president made an urgent plea for help as Islamic rebels headed towards the country's capital. However, argues Mediapart's editor François Bonnet, the intervention has taken place in an impromptu manner, with shifting objectives, an unclear timetable and after having deliberately ignored the complex processes of political negotiations. As a result, he says, France finds itself alone without its European allies in a country that has completely fallen apart.

Convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles has set out from capital Bamako for Diabaly, 350km to the north, a town captured by the rebels.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he hopes the intervention will help restore "Mali's constitutional order and territorial integrity".

The rapidity of the intervention in Mali has revealed a man capable of bold and dangerous decisions but the fallout is potentially enormous.