The European Union Training Mission (EUTM) exercises are meant "to help Mali to ensure its long-term security, after the ongoing military operations against armed groups in the North".
There will be a general training, to be followed by a specialised training in engineering, telecommunications and artillery and engineering, sources said, adding elite snipers will also be trained.
In all, four contingents ie 2600 troops should be trained in about 15 months.
Lead by French General François Lecointre, the Mali-EUTM was approved in December 2012 by the 27 EU countries, but its preparation was accelerated in the aftermath of the French military intervention on 11 January.
Twenty-three European countries are involved in this training mission, whose overall cost is €12 million.
A total of 63 Malian soldiers and about 600 Islamist militants have been killed since the launch of the French military intervention against insurgents who had taken control of the northern region.
Chad has so far paid the heaviest brunt of the war with about 30 of its soldiers killed since the army ventured in the Adrar of Ifoghas mountain range, where its troops and French forces have been jointly tracking down jihadists taking refuge in the region they considered their stronghold.
France has lost five troops, while Togo has suffered two dead and Burkina Faso one.
France is preparing to hand over to a UN-mandated African force of 6,300 in coming weeks.
A military coup, on March 22 toppled former Malian leader Amadou Toumani Toure, and ushered in a political transition, following a transitional period of 40 days.
The putsch worsened the situation in north, divising the country into as separatists Tuaregs and Islamists groups had launched an offensive claiming independence.
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