"We announced surveillance flights that would allow us to prepare [for] airstrikes if they were necessary, and they will be necessary in Syria," Hollande said on Monday while speaking to reporters following his meeting with visiting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
The development came after the French president declared last week that he had ordered surveillance flights over Syria, saying, "What we want is to know what is being prepared against us and what is being done against the Syrian population."
Hollande's threat of carrying out unauthorized aerial attacks against alleged Daesh-held targets across Syria came after the British military killed three suspected Takfiri militants in the Arab country in a drone attack last week.
UK authorities identified two of those killed in the drone strike as young British citizens that had travelled to Syria to join the Daesh terror campaign in the country.
The French decision to engage in aerial attacks over the Syrian territory come as Europe continues to struggle with the tide of refugees arriving from the war-torn country.
This is while the US, Canada, Turkey and the Persian Gulf Arab kingdoms – which have actively supported the foreign-backed war in Syria since 2011 – have already been involved in conducting airstrikes against alleged Daesh militants in the country without authorization from the Syrian government.
The US-led coalition has also been involved in similar operations against Daesh terrorists in neighboring Iraq, but they have been assessed by Iraqi authorities as largely ineffective since they have not resulted in eliminating the terror threat in any parts of the country where the Takfiri militants maintain presence.
The coalition has also struck Iraqi government forces in a number of instances instead of the Daesh militants raising Iraqi concerns about the reliability of the US-led military operations in the country.
Meanwhile, during his talks with the Nigerian president, Hollande further stated that the fight against the Takfiri Boko Haram elements in Nigeria and the Daesh terrorists is the same battle.
"We know Boko Haram is linked to Daesh and so receives help, support from this group," said the French president.
"To fight Boko Haram is to fight Daesh, and we can no longer single out terrorism according to regions. It is the same terrorism, inspired by the same ideology of death," he added.
The French president made the remarks as a source close to Hollande was cited in an AFP report as saying that the country's "assistance to Nigeria against Boko Haram focuses mainly on intelligence operations," adding that Paris conducts surveillance flights over Nigeria "at the request of the Nigerians."