Operation Serval France's intervention. On January 26, during the CELAC and European Union summit in Santiago de Chile, Colombia and Chile both expressed support for the French military intervention in Mali. Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, stated that "Colombia has suffered so much from terrorism that it can not disagree with this action." A 2013 Al Jazeera poll found that 96% of Malians in Bamako supported French intervention. Operation Serval Operation Serval () was a French military operation in Mali. The aim of the operation was to oust Islamic militants from the north of Mali, who had begun a push into the
Civil-military co-operation Civil-military co-operation Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) is the means by which a military commander connects with civilian agencies active in a theatre of operations. CIMIC activities are co-ordinated via the "G9" staff branch of a divisional, or other, headquarters. In high-level tri-service, or joint, headquarters (JHQ), the department is termed "J9". The United States Army has, since the Second World War, maintained civil affairs units. Part of their function includes CIMIC tasks, however, they have a much broader function and a different focus from most other CIMIC organizations. In the mid-1990s, primarily in response to lessons learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina