BAMAKO: France secured fresh UN backing for its military action in Mali and reinforced its ground forces with an armored column after driving Islamists from their northern bases with air strikes.

A meeting of the 15-nation UN Security Council on Mali expressed unanimous “understanding and support” for the military intervention, France’s UN Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters on Monday.

The United Nations also said over 30,000 people had fled the fighting and accused the Islamists of stopping thousands of them from travelling south into government-held zones.

French President Francois Hollande, meanwhile, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday on a long-planned trade mission, but his aides have insisted that he will be kept fully informed of developments in Mali.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, originally scheduled to be part of the high-powered delegation, stayed in Paris.

French jets on Monday hit Dou-entza, 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Bamako, which the Islamists have held since September. But residents said that the fighters had left before the warplanes arrived.

The jihadists have imposed a brutal version of Islamic law in the north for nearly 10 months.

In Timbuktu, where residents have been executed, or had limbs cut off in some of the worst abuses, they said that the Islamists had fled in anticipation of an attack.

In Gao, another northern city formerly held by the Islamists, they were nowhere to be seen after bombing by Rafale warplanes on Sunday, residents there reported.

Having been driven from their northern strongholds on Monday, the Islamists struck back in western Mali, capturing the small town of Diabaly from the country’s weakened army.

France and other UN Security Council countries want to speed up the deployment of a UN-mandated 3,300-strong west African intervention force in Mali.

Nigeria, which will lead the force, plans to have 600 troops on the ground “before next week,” President Goodluck Jonathan said. Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo have also pledged troops.

Britain and Canada have offered troop transporters to the French military and the United States says it will share intelligence and provide logistical support.