The Gendarmerie is a new branch of the service in which training and education is being supported by the French Military Cooperation in Equatorial Guinea.

French Guinea () was a French colonial possession in West Africa.

French Guinea was established in 1891, taking the same borders as the previous colony of Rivières du Sud ( 1882 – 1891 ).

Prior to 1882, the coastal portions of French Guinea were part of the French colony of Senegal.

In 1894 Rivières du Sud, Coted ' Ivoire and Dahomey were separated into ' independent ' colonies, with Rivières du Sud being renamed the Colony of French Guinea.

In 1895, French Guinea was made a dependent colony, and its Governor then became a Lieutenant Governor to a Governor-General in Dakar.

French Guinea, along with Senegal, Dahomey, Cote-d ' Ivoire and Upper Senegal and Niger each were ruled by a lieutenant governor, under the Governor General in Dakar.

At the time French Guinea was the only colony to refuse the new constitution.

French Guinea became the modern day country of Guinea keeping French as its official language.

Its current boundaries were deterimined during the colonial period by the Conference of Berlin and the French, who ruled Guinea until 1958.

French domination was assured by the defeat in 1898 of the armies of Samori Touré, Mansa ( or Emperor ) of the Ouassoulou state and leader of Malinké descent, which gave France control of what today is Guinea and adjacent areas.

Under the French, the country formed the Territory of Guinea within French West Africa, administered by a governor general resident in Dakar.

The French withdrew quickly, and on October 2, 1958, Guinea proclaimed itself a sovereign and independent republic, with Sékou Touré as president.

The Republic of Guinea Armed Forces ( French: Forces armées guinéennes ) are the armed forces of Guinea.

The new armed forces were formed by incorporating some of the former French soldiers, after a careful screening process to determine political reliability, with members of the former territorial Gendarmie to form the People's Army of Guinea ( L ' Armee Populaire de Guinee ).

Guinea became the first French African colony to gain independence, on 2 October 1958, at the cost of the immediate cessation of all French assistance.