Islamists in Mali threatened Saturday to "open the doors of hell" for French citizens, in a statement following the adoption by the UN Security Council of a plan to oust al-Qaida linked militants from occupied territory.

The UN resolution, proposed by France and approved Friday, expressed alarm over the infiltration by "al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), affiliated groups and other extremist groups," and condemned "the abuses of human rights committed in the north of Mali by armed rebels, terrorist and other extremist groups".

The Islamists' renewed threats against French hostages held in the country and expatriates comes ahead of a summit of French-speaking nations in Congo, where President François Hollande is expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the Islamists.

"If he continues to throw oil on the fire, we will send him the pictures of dead French hostages in the coming days," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for Islamist group MUJWA, in an apparent reference to four French nationals who were seized in neighboring northern Niger in 2010. "He will not be able to count the bodies of French expatriates across West Africa and elsewhere."

MUJWA is among the Islamist groups that have controlled the northern two-thirds of Mali since fighters swept the territory in April, following a coup in the capital Bamako.

The UN's assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, returned from Mali to tell reporters this week that al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militias have imposed a harsh version of Shariah law on the north.

"The population is suffering," he said, adding that he had received testimony that forced marriage, forced prostitution and rape are widespread and that women are being sold as "wives" for less than $1,000 in northern Mali.

Separately, Simonovic said: "It is frightening to hear that lists are being compiled of women who are either pregnant or have children and are not married. We don't know what will happen to them."

AQIM had abolished taxes in the north and were using extortion, ransom payments and funds from drug transshipping to establish their rule, he said. Children are being recruited to build bombs and to serve as soldiers, with payments made to their families of $600 on enlistment and $400 a month afterward, in a territory in which half the population live son less than $1.25 a day, Simonovic said.

Executions of captured soldiers and cases of rape had become "more systemic," he said.

More than 1.5 million Malians have had to flee their homes, with some 40,000 displaced people in the regional city of Mopti. More than 100,000 refugees have registered in Mauritania, over 100,000 in Burkina Faso, 40,000 in Niger and 30,000 in Algeria.

The UN resolution gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 45 days to help Mali, the West Africans and the African Union develop plans to recover the occupied territory. It invokes Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which opens the door to military intervention and enforcement of the council's decisions. It also calls for help from the European Union to help train and assist the Malian army to retake the north. Another resolution authorizing deployment and backing of the African peacekeeping force would have to come later, after Ban sends specific recommendations to the Security Council.

The main thrust of the plan is likely to be hammered out at a 19 October meeting in Bamako, Mali, of representatives of the United Nations, t he Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the AU, the European Union and neighboring countries.

ECOWAS and Mali's transitional government asked the Security Council in September to authorize a military intervention to oust the al-Qaida linked Islamists. But the council said it wanted the West African group to prepare a "feasible" plan with "detailed options" for a force, and to coordinate with other African nations and the European Union.

French president Hollande said Thursday that any military intervention must be carried out only by Africans. He emphasized France's willingness to provide material and training, but said: "There will be no [French] troops on the ground."

Mali's democratically elected leader was ousted in a military coup in March. The junta accused him of failing to quell a rebellion in the north, which began in January. After the coup, Tuareg rebels took advantage of the power vacuum and within weeks took control of the north, aided by an Islamist faction. But the Islamists quickly ousted the Tuaregs and took control of half the country.

Friday's resolution urges the transitional authorities and Malian secular rebel groups such as the Tauregs to cut off their ties to al-Qaida and negotiate as soon as possible "in order to seek a sustainable political solution" to the crisis.