The Malian Army complained that it was ill-equipped to fight the insurgents, who had benefited from an influx of heavy weaponry from the 2011 Libyan civil war as well as other sources.

On 21 March 2012 elements of the army staged a military coup d'état and formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State.

On 1 April 2012, under pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the leader of the junta Captain Amadou Sanogo announced that the constitution would be restored.

[6] On 1 July 2013, 6,000 of a future total of 12,600 UN peacekeeping troops officially took over responsibility for patrolling the country's north from France and the ECOWAS' International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA).

Though the group was expected to play a role in the election, the electoral commission's president, Mamadou Diamountani, said it would be "extremely difficult" to arrange for up to eight million voting identification cards when there were 500,000 displaced people as a result of the conflict.

On 3 August 2013, ADEMA candidate Dramane Dembélé, who placed third in the election, announced his support for Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the second round, saying that "we are in the Socialist International, we share the same values".