Supported by: Non-state combatants: Ganda Iso MAA-Loyaliste[56][57] MSA (2016–) Coordination of Azawad Movements(CMA)[61] Al-Qaeda and allies Nigerian jihadist volunteers (2012–13) Islamic State Assimi Goïta (2021–) Choguel Kokalla Maïga (2021–2024) 6,000–7,000[76](pre-war: ~12,150)[77] 3,000[78] 2,000[11] 1,400 (2022)[79] 1,216[80] 1,200[2][81] 733[53] 650[82] 500[2] 500[53] 500[2] 500[2] 450[83] 400 (2021)[84] 395[20] 300 300[2] 250[85] 144[2] 120[2] 100[22] ~50[86] Total: 23,564+

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.

After the Malian military was driven from northern Mali, Ansar Dine and a number of smaller Islamist groups began imposing strict Sharia law.

Amid popular Malian anti-French protests and increasing involvement in the war by the Russian mercenary Wagner Group and the Turkish, the French withdrew their forces entirely by 15 August 2022, ending their presence in the country.

[141][142] In the early 1990s, Tuareg and Arab nomads formed the People's Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MPA) and declared war for independence of the northern part of Mali.

[175] An agreement was reached between the junta and ECOWAS negotiators on 6 April, in which both Sanogo and Touré would resign, sanctions would be lifted, the mutineers would be granted amnesty, and power would pass to National Assembly of Mali Speaker Dioncounda Traoré.

[186] The speed and ease with which the rebels took control of the north was attributed in large part to the confusion created in the army's coup, leading Reuters to describe it as "a spectacular own-goal".

[190] On 8 April, a mostly Arab militia calling itself the National Liberation Front of Azawad (FNLA) announced its intention to oppose Tuareg rule, battle the MNLA, and "return to peace and economic activity"; the group claimed to consist of 500 fighters.

[206] However, UN Security Council Resolution 2085, passed on 20 December 2012, "authorizes the deployment of an African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) for an initial period of one year.

[212] By December, the now displaced MNLA began peace talks with the Malian government and relinquished its previous goal of Azawadi independence in favor of a request for self-rule within Mali.

[214] At this time, the MNLA controlled no big localities and was only strong in rural and desert areas near the borders with Mauritania, Algeria and Niger, having been driven off from most of its claimed territory by Islamist groups.

[233] On 13 January, regional security sources announced the death in Konna of Abdel Krim, nicknamed "Kojak", a high level leader in the Ansar Dine group.

[271][272][273] After gaining the airport on 27 January, the next day, Malian and French military sources claimed that the entire area between Gao and Timbuktu was under government control and access to the city was available.

[283] On 8 February, French and Chadian troops announced that they had occupied Tessalit near the Algerian border, the location of one of the last airports still not controlled by the Malian government and its allies.

[284] Islamist and Tuareg forces retreated to the Adrar des Ifoghas, rugged badlands in northeastern Mali, where knowledge of and control over local sources of water would play a vital role in continuing the conflict in that area.

Islamist fighters armed with AK-47s then crossed the Niger River on canoes, took over an abandoned police station and deployed snipers in nearby buildings in anticipation of the government forces' counterattack.

[299] On 28 February, Algerian television informed that Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, one of the three top men of AQIM and deemed responsible of several kidnappings of westerners in the Sahel in the 2000s, had been killed in battle against Franco-Chadian forces in the Tigharghar mountains along with about 40 of his followers, some kilometres away from Aguelhok.

On 3 December 2020, the UK government announced an increase in the British Army commitment to MINUSMA, with 300 soldiers principally drawn from the Light Dragoons and the Royal Anglian Regiment operating with 'a highly specialised reconnaissance capability'.

French President Emmanuel Macron declared on this occasion: "We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de facto authorities whose strategy or hidden objectives we share neither".

[346] On 29 April 2024, it was reported that Abu Huzeifa, a commander for a Sahelian affiliate of Islamic State (ISGS) was killed during an operation in Menaka region by Malian army.

[351] On 20 August 2024, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger wrote to the United Nations Security Council, complaining about Ukraine's support for rebel groups in the Sahel region.

[119] On 18 June, Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin Islamists attacked a luxury resort in Bamako killing 5 people, including one Portuguese soldier.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as France resumed joint military exercises with members of the Malian Armed Forces, which had been suspended following the coup d'état that year led by Colonel Assimi Goïta.

[378] In July 2024, Coordination of Azawad Movements and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin militants killed dozens of Russian mercenaries and Malian government forces.

The organization stated that fighters with the MNLA and Ansar Dine were "running riot" in Mali's north,[383] and documented instances of gang rape, extrajudicial executions, and the use of child soldiers by both Tuareg and Islamist groups.

[394] On 28 January 2013, as French-led Malian troops captured the airport of the World Heritage town of Timbuktu, the Ahmed Baba Institute, host of priceless ancient manuscripts, was razed by fleeing Islamists.

[395] The Tuaregs and Arabs who lived in Bamako and elsewhere in southern Mali were subjects of a rash of ethnic attacks by black Malians, despite many of them being hostile to Azawad separatism as well as the Islamists.

[396] An incident arose on 8 September 2012 when a group of Malian soldiers detained 17 unarmed Tablighi preachers from Mauritania in Dogofry, north-east of Diabaly, while en route to a religious conference in Bamako and executed all but one of them without reporting to their own command.

[398] On 23 January 2013, BBC reported claims by the International Federation of Human Rights that Malian Army soldiers had carried out summary executions against people suspected of being militant, and with bodies subsequently being hastily buried in makeshift graves and wells.

[400] A number of musicians from Mali came together to record the song Mali-ko (meaning peace) and release a video titled Voices United for Mali-'Mali-ko'[401] in early 2013 about the ongoing conflict in the country.