French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday said Paris will provide African forces with logistic help to contribute in restoring stability in northern Mali, defying al-Qaeda threats to kill national hostages in case of French military intervention in the West African country.

"Africans have to organize their forces and set a roadmap in collaboration with French authorities. We back logistically this operation. It's an indirect intervention," the minister told news channel i>tele.

"We will not allow the evolution that is currently happened and that led to the creation of terrorist groups claiming ties with al-Qaeda," Le Drian added, responding to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)'s fresh threat to kill French hostages.

On Wednesday, AQIM menaced in an online message to kill the remained four French workers of Areva kidnapped in 2010, if Paris would prepare a military intervention alongside African forces to oust Islamist insurgents from northern areas of Mali.

The former French colony plunged into sporadic violent clashes as rebels wanted to create a separate homeland in the north where the Islamists seized three Malian cities with the help from regional al-Qaeda insurgents.