Mubarak was taken from Cairo’s Tora prison by medical helicopter on Thursday, following a court ruling which ordered his release. A medical helicopter then carried Mubarak to the Maadi Medical Hospital afternoon, according to local media.

Interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi has ordered Mubarak be placed under house arrest, according to AFP, with his travel ban remaining in effect.

Although Mubarak is released from prison he still faces charges of being involved in the killing of peaceful protesters in the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak was convicted last year of corruption and involvement in the murder of protesters during an uprising where Egyptians took to Tahrir Square for 18 days to demand his ouster.

Meanwhile, supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Mursi called on the Egyptian people to protest against the army Friday.

Egypt has witnessed unprecedented violent clashes since security forces dispersed two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in the country a week ago.

Until now, almost 1,000 people have been killed across the country, according to Al Jazeera.

Islamist groups in Egypt have been accusing Mursi’s ouster in early July as a “military coup”.

In July this year, Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected president, was deposed by the armed forces after only one year in office.

“The Secretary-General hopes these actions will help to arrest the latest offensive while efforts continue to fully implement Security Council Resolution 2085 (2012) aimed at the full restoration of Mali’s constitutional order and territorial integrity,” according to a statement released by his spokesperson.

Northern Mali was occupied by radical Islamists after fighting broke out in January 2012 between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, after which the country underwent a military coup d’état, in March.

According to media reports, a French air operation began on Friday and continued over the weekend after the armed groups overran the town of Konna, which had been on the de facto dividing line between those areas under Government control and those already occupied by the rebels.

Mr. Ban stressed that the latest events underscore the urgency of implementing all aspects of resolution 2085, including support for Malian defence forces and the deployment of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali, or AFISMA, the Council authorized through that text, according to the statement.

Also urgent were the success of mediation efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the development of a consensual roadmap for a political transition and provision of support, Mr. Ban said.

According to the statement, preparations are also continuing for the deployment soon of a UN multidisciplinary team to the capital, Bamako, to carry forward support requested for both the political and security process.

Mr. Ban spoke on Saturday with the President of Côte d’Ivoire and Chair of ECOWAS, Alassane Ouattara, who briefed him on the ECOWAS summit planned for 19 January in Abuja and the plans of several of its member States to deploy military forces, the spokesperson said.

The Secretary-General was briefed on the French operation yesterday by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ban’s Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit, continues his consultations in the sub-region as part of efforts to speed up implementation of resolution 2085, the spokesman added.

Mr. Djinnit met yesterday in Abuja with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Kadré Desiré Ouédraogo, and with Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassolé of Burkina Faso. He is expected to travel to Bamako in the coming days, Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said.

Also yesterday afternoon, the delegation of France briefed the Security Council in a closed-door session on the military action conducted by the country after which its Permanent Representative told correspondents that Council members had expressed their support and understanding of the operation in the context of resolution 2085.

The renewed clashes in the north, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability have uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians in Mali. Over 412,000 people have been forced to flee the north, and an estimated five million people have been affected by the conflict.

A spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), Elisabeth Byrs, told reporters in Geneva that the UN agency had already reached more than one million people in the Sahelian country despite its volatile political and security situation.

Byrs’ announcement comes against the backdrop of a high-level meeting held today in Mali’s capital, Bamako, where an African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and United Nations Meeting of the Support and Follow-up Group on Mali discussed how to address the security, political and humanitarian problems facing the country since the start of the year, when fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in the country’s north.

Since then, radical Islamists have seized control of the north, where they have imposed an extremist version of Muslim Sharia law as well as restrictions that target women in particular.

The instability and insecurity resulting from renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

Byrs reported that preliminary findings from a joint WFP/Early Warning System survey conducted this month confirmed the deterioration of living conditions in the north of the country. She added that overall, 4.6 million people across Mali remained at risk of food insecurity and 560,000 children under the age of five were at risk of acute malnutrition.

In addition to its free targeted food distribution centres, which she said had helped more than 250,000 people in the month of October, the WFP spokesperson further noted that the agency was implementing long-term empowerment strategies through capacity building initiatives, such as reforestation, rehabilitation, prevention of soil erosion, building classrooms and roads and well as creating accessible water sources.

Byrs also said that WFP was preparing its Emergency School Feeding programme, targeting 290 schools in southern Mali, where children will receive a WFP ration of ‘Supercereal’ – a highly nutritious product which will enable them to concentrate on class work.

Also on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that a joint mission with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) completed a two-day visit to Mali.

The aim of the visit was also to better understand the current humanitarian situation in Mali, assess the assistance already provided, and discuss the challenges faced by the Government and humanitarian actors.

“The visit of the joint mission has allowed us to present the complexity of the humanitarian situation to the international community,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Coordinator for Mali, Aurélien Agbénonci, in a joint news release.

“It is urgent to strengthen humanitarian assistance to save lives while respecting human dignity and preventing an increase of humanitarian needs in countries neighbouring Mali,” he added. “Interventions can no longer wait because humanitarian needs are becoming bigger day by day while available resources are still insufficient.”

During its visit, the joint mission’s participants discussed the humanitarian crisis in the country with the Government and the diplomatic corps, as well as the humanitarian community and civil society organizations. They also visited a nutritional centre in the district of Kangaba, in the region of Koulikoro in the country’s west.

In the joint press release, OCHA and OIC noted that more than five million people are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance in Mali, representing about one third of the estimated population of 15.8 million.

“Women are the primary victims of the current crisis and have been disproportionately affected by the situation in the north,” Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic said in a news release. “Their human rights to employment, education and access to basic social services have been seriously curtailed.”

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

Šimonovic said Islamic groups are now in control following power shifts since the March coup. One displaced woman he interviewed in the northern town of Mopti said she could no longer return to her hometown of Gao, where she had been a merchant, because women under the strict application of Islamic Sharia law cannot work.

But “most disturbing,” according to the news release, were reports that Islamist groups were compiling lists of women who have had children out of wedlock, or who were unmarried and pregnant. “This could indicate that these women are at imminent risk of being subjected to cruel and inhuman[e] punishment,” Šimonovic said.

He said that, at the beginning of the conflict, there were reports of summary executions of members of the military, rapes, looting, forced displacement and forced child recruitment with the advance of the Tuareg rebel group Azawad National Liberation Movement, known by the French acronym MNLA.

“These were appalling violations of human rights,” said Šimonovic. “But they were largely ad hoc in nature.”

Since Islamic groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had taken control, the region was witnessing human rights abuses of a “different character,” he noted.

“Civil and political rights are being severely restricted as a result of the imposition of a strict interpretation of Sharia law, and systemic cruel and inhuman[e] punishments are being implemented, including executions, mutilations and stonings,” Šimonovic said.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says children have been deprived of their rights to education in the north because many teachers had fled, leading to the closure of schools. More ominously, extreme poverty, lack of employment and education is “making it easy for young people to fall prey to armed extreme Islamist groups, who continue to lure youth and children to join their cause.”

In a “particularly grave” case, one witness told Šimonovic of three children who were reportedly maimed while being trained on how to use improvised explosive devices.

In the Government-controlled south, Šimonovic pointed to reports of continuing torture and inhumane prison conditions. He noted that at least 30 participants of an April counter-coup remained in detention, and many had allegedly not had charges brought against them. Also, the whereabouts of 20 soldiers involved in the counter-coup had yet to be confirmed.

“It is essential that the authorities investigate these cases of disappearances in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Šimonovic, who received assurances from Mali’s Minister of Justice that thorough investigations would be promptly completed.

“Current violations are to a great degree symptoms of the chronic disrespect for human rights that already existed in Mali in the past,” Šimonovic said. “There is a need to address these root causes, including widespread corruption, mismanagement of public funds, inequality between the elite and general population, and nepotism, amongst others.”

Šimonovic emphasized the need for investigations into the recent human rights violations in both the north and the south, and said it was essential the perpetrators be held to account as a precondition for reconciliation and social cohesion.

He noted that any UN support to Malian security forces “must” conform to the UN’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, which prohibits the UN from supporting security forces involved in grave human rights violations.

To advance women’s human rights and empower them, it was essential that measures be taken to promote their participation in public life. Šimonovic said he was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s recognition that women have an important role to play in building peace and reconciliation as well as the economic prosperity of the country.

“One concrete way would be to introduce a 30 per cent quota for women in Parliament ahead of the next legislative elections,” Mr. Šimonovic said, adding that OHCHR was ready to support the Malian authorities in this regard, including through appointing a Human Rights Adviser to the UN Country Team in the capital, Bamako.