This practice note offers an account of France’s military intervention in Mali launched on 11 January 2013. Firstly, it provides an analysis of the events that led up to the dual crisis in the country’s northern and southern regions and to a new wave of armed conflict between government and rebel forces. Then, it is argued that although the French military intervention was framed as inevitable and based on a broad consensus, it will nevertheless be insufficient to address the root sociopolitical causes of Mali´s multidimensional crisis.