About 200 French and Malian troops on Monday entered the Mali town of Diabaly — which fell to Islamist rebels a week ago — without meeting resistance, Al Jazeera reported:
Diabaly, 350 km north of the capital Bamako, had harboured the main cluster of rebels south of the front-line towns of Mopti and Sevare until French airstrikes forced them to flee or attempt to blend in with locals, residents said.