[22] Operation Serval followed the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2085 of 20 December 2012 and an official request by the Malian interim government for French military assistance.

In January 2012, following an influx of weapons that occurred after the Libyan Civil War, Tuareg tribesmen of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) began a rebellion against Mali's central government.

[33] By 16 January, the French Air Force dispatched two additional KC-135 Stratotanker planes and two Harfang UAVs from the 1/33 Belfort Reconnaissance Squadron to N'Djamena.

On 23 January, a detachment of Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air was deployed to the airport in Bamako to provide security for the French Air Force assets stationed there and to execute combat search and rescue missions if necessary.

[32] On 14 January, the French Army Light Aviation transported Eurocopter Tiger HAP attack helicopters from the 5e Régiment d'Hélicoptères de Combat to Mali.

[49] The French National Gendarmerie deployed two platoons of gendarmes to Mali in the military police role: DGSE Service Action These are the forces committed by the countries that support France (in alphabetical order): The operation began on 11 January 2013, with French Army Gazelle helicopters armed with 20 mm cannons from the 4th Special Forces Helicopter Regiment attacking a rebel column near Sévaré.

[79] French airstrikes appeared to stop the rebel advance to the south which prompted the intervention[80] and destroyed an Ansar Dine command post near Konna.

[90] The next day, Chadian forces began moving from Niger's capital city, Niamey, to Ouallam, a position some one-hundred kilometers south of the Malian border.

[91] On 25 January, it was reported that a combined force of French and Malian troops captured the town of Hombori, about 100 miles south of Gao.

[99] After gaining the airport on 27 January, the next day, Malian and French military sources claimed that the entire area between Gao and Timbuktu was under government control and access to the city was available.

[100][101][102] Three days after capturing Timbuktu, French and Malian forces entered the town of Kidal on 30 January, approximately 200 kilometers from the Algerian border.

[104] On 8 February, French and Chadian troops claimed to have occupied the town of Tessalit, near the Algerian border, and seat of one of the last airports still not controlled by the Malian government and its allies.

[110] On 6 March, a French Army sergeant from the 68th African artillery regiment was killed during an operation in eastern Mali around 100 km (60 miles) from the town of Gao, the former stronghold of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA).

On 17 March, a corporal from the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment was killed when his vehicle was hit by an Improvised explosive device in the south of Tessalit in the Adrar des Ifoghas massif.

[111] On 30 March, the city of Timbuktu was attacked when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Malian army checkpoint, allowing a group of rebels to infiltrate by night.

[114] On 25 May 2013, French forces began their first stage of withdrawal when a convoy of lorries left Bamako for Ivory Coast, carrying equipment and vehicles no longer needed.

[116] Tuareg rebellion (2012): 2012 coup Internal conflict in Azawad: Foreign intervention: 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 On the evening of 16 April 2014, the French army destroyed two pickup trucks containing jihadists north of Timbuktu.

During the night of 16 to 17 April, the French special forces, backed by troops from Operation Serval and helicopters come in contact with the Islamist fighters.

[119] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hoped on 12 January that the French government's decision would "be consistent with the spirit" of UN Security Council resolution 2085 adopted in December.

[120] Algerian foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani expressed support for the Malian transitional authorities, and "noted that Mali has asked, in line with its sovereignty, for friendly powers to reinforce its national capacities to fight terrorism".

[122] Germany could take part in any European training mission to Mali to help its government prepare troops to counter the insurgents, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on 14 January.

[123] On 14 January, the Tuareg separatist MNLA declared it would fight alongside the French and even the Malian government to "end terrorism in Azawad".

[124] Mathieu Guidère, a scholar of Islam and the Arab world at the University of Toulouse, said in an interview published in the newsmagazine Jeune Afrique, that without the French military intervention the state of Mali would have fallen.

"[126] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the intervention in a phone call with French President François Hollande as "a brave step against extremist Islamic terrorism".