This certainly implies an intent to act against the northern jihadis before the autumn:
America, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) are providing transport planes and helicopters needed to help move the African and French troops around in the north. It will take a few weeks to get the aircraft and helicopters into Mali along with their support troops, equipment and supplies. A lot of fuel will be used, especially by the helicopters and warplanes. That has to be trucked in to landlocked Mali. As the old saying goes; “amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.” Sending troops north without sufficient water, food, water, ammo, fuel and other supplies, and the ground and land transport to keep the stuff coming, is not practical. It simply won’t work.
In addition, African countries may provide up to 10,000 troops for the mission. If supplied and paid, they could do ok.
The French are still reinforcing after blocking the initial jihadi surge south. The Algeria attack may have shown the problem of giving the jihadis time to sit around and ponder their situation.
UPDATE: Mali forces aren't waiting for the logistics build up:
Government forces advanced into northern Mali on Friday and reached the town of Hombori, some 160 km (100 miles) south of the Islamist rebel stronghold of Gao, after French air strikes drove back the militants, military sources said.
Are the Mali forces alone good enough? Or are they putting out blocking positions to protect the recently liberated town of Douentza?
Also remember that the Mali government is not the pure good guy in this:
Mali's government is warning soldiers to respect human rights following reports that the military killed civilians at a bus stop in central Mali.
Mali troops from the south don't like the lighter skinned Tuaregs from the north.
Remember, while we have an interest in smashing up the jihadis who gathered in northern Mali, we don't have an interest in settling the Tuareg issue--except for how it affects our objective of hammering jihadis.
I did note that the Tuaregs should have rejected jihadi help completely and we would have had no interest in intervention. To be fair, most Tuaregs seem to have recognized their error.
