The IISS listed paramilitary total force as 4,800 personnel: 1,800 in the Gendarmerie (8 companies), 2,000 in the Republican Guard, and 1,000 police officers.

[1] "On 1 October 1960, the Malian army was created and solemnly installed through a speech by Chief of Staff Captain Sekou Traore.

On 12 October the same year, the population of Bamako attended for the first time an army parade under the command of Captain Tiemoko Konate.

"[1][3] In the sixties and seventies, Mali's army and air force relied primarily on the Soviet Union for materiel and training.

[8] On 19 November 1968, a group of young Malian officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member military junta, with Lieutenant Moussa Traoré as president.

The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms, but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.

His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led anti-government demonstrations, which were brutally put down, and by three coup attempts.

The armed forces' reprisals led to a full-blown rebellion in which the absence of opportunities for Tuareg in the army was a major complaint.

[12] Following the rebel advance, a group of soldiers from the Kati camp near Bamako staged a coup on 22 March 2012 which overthrew Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré.

After the junta seized power, they successfully repelled a counter coup on 30 April by loyalists from the red berets elite units.

[17] On 17 September 2024, JNIM militants attacked several locations across Bamako, the capital of Mali, including police and military installations, killing at least 77 people and injuring 255 others.

[23] In 2010 Agence France-Presse reported that French training would be given to the 62nd Motorized Infantry Regiment of the 6th Military Region, based at Sévaré.

[24] The same story said that the regiment consisted of three Rapid Intervention Companies (CIR) and AFP said it was "considered the elite...of the Malian army.

"[24] Mali is one of four Saharan states which created a Joint Military Staff Committee in 2010, to be based at Tamanrasset in southern Algeria.