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
British military intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War after Kosovo. During his remaining time in office, British forces undertook operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but Sierra Leone was the only unilateral operation. Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, the intervention in Sierra Leone was widely regarded as successful. It became a "benchmark" for successful expeditionary operations, and was cited by Blair in his rationale for later deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Success in Sierra Leone encouraged the Blair government to continue its support to Africa, particularly with regard to resolving conflicts. Sierra Leone also encouraged Blair's policy of humanitarian intervention. Critics claimed that it led Blair to see military force