Operation Serval: update on Thursday, 7 February, 2013

French air operations have continued with more than seventy sorties of which some twenty were strikes. These operations resulted in hitting 5 targets which were mainly logistics depots and training centres around Aguelhok.
About 30 other sorties were dedicated to strategic routing for our forces and the others supported air operations (refuelling and intelligence).

On the ground, French soldiers, in coordination with the FAM, now control an area extending from Bamako to Kidal and the African MISMA or Chadian forces control the country's major cities.
Mixed patrols continue at Gao and Timbuktu. A GTIA 21 S/GTIA was left at Douentza while the rest of the troops continues to secure Gao, Timbuktu, and the surrounding area.

The 1^erRIMA's SGTIA is deployed to the north of Gao.
The GTIA 92, which arrived at Dakar on board the BPC Dixmude on the 28^th of January, entered Mali at the beginning of the week and some of the soldiers arrived at Sevaré yesterday.
A third portable surgical hospital (PSH) is now operational at Gao. It supplements the surgical health support installations at Bamako and Sévaré. Given the strain on Malian surgical units and the dispersion of French troops, these facilities provide support closer to troops deployed on the ground.

In Kidal, one 1^erRCP company is providing airport security in coordination with Chadian soldiers.
In Sévaré, two Belgian helicopters are evacuating French and African troop casualties.
The logistics battalion is gaining momentum with the same purpose of closely supporting the troops and a tactical logistics sub-group is already operational in Bamako.
There are currently 4,000 French soldiers in Mali. Alongside them, nearly 4,000 African soldiers are now present in Mali as well as some 2200 MISMA soldiers belonging to Togo (640), Burkina Faso (500), Nigeria (240) Niger (530), Benin (150) and Senegal (50). More troops are expected in coming weeks.