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List of paramilitary organizations

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ25344947
Source-derived summary

Paramilitary is a military force that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.

Paramilitaries use combat-capable kit/equipment (such as internal security/SWAT vehicles), or even actual military equipment (such as long guns and armored personnel carriers; usually military surplus resources), skills (such as battlefield medicine and bomb disposal), and tactics (such as urban warfare and close-quarters combat) that are compatible with their purpose, often combining them with skills from other relevant fields such as law enforcement, coast guard, or search and rescue. A paramilitary may fall under the command of a military, train alongside them, or have permission to use their resources, despite not actually being part of them.

List of governmental paramilitary organizations

Africa

Egypt

Central Security Forces

Libya (Libyan House of Representatives)

Avengers of Blood

Mauritius

Special Mobile Force

Nigeria

Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS)

Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)

Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps

Safety and Traffic Cadet Corps

Federal Fire Service

Nigeria Correctional Service

Nigeria Customs Service

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency

Department of State Services

Sudan

Janjaweed (~197x - 2020 but continues in successors units)

Rapid Support Forces (2013 partially Janjaweed successor till 2023)

Popular Defence Forces

Somaliland

SSB

Americas

Canada

Canadian Rangers

The Emergency Response Team (RCMP)

Marine Emergency Response Team

Costa Rica

The Public Force of Costa Rica is responsible for law enforcement duties, acting as both a civilian police force and gendarmerie. In addition to ordinary policing, it is responsible for border patrol, counter-insurgency, riot control, tourism security, and coast guard duties.

Peru

The Rondas campesinas are community-based groups in Peru, formed initially to combat cattle rustling and later in response to the Shining Path insurgency. They function primarily as local self-defense and law enforcement entities, especially in rural areas with limited government presence.

United States

CIA Special Activities Center, Special Operations Group

DOE Federal Protective Forces

DOE Office of Secure Transportation

FBI SWAT

FBI Hostage Rescue Team

United States Marshals Service

National Lancers

SWAT

ICE

USSS (United States Secret Service)

Venezuela

Venezuelan National Guard

Bolivarian Militia of Venezuela

Asia

Bangladesh

China (People's Republic of China)

Taiwan (Republic of China)

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Japan

North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)

South Korea (Republic of Korea)

Malaysia

Pasukan Gerakan Am as Paramilitary Force

People's Volunteer Corps of Ministry of Home Affairs

69 Komando PGK as Multi Spectrum Special Force

Nepal

Pakistan

Civil Armed Forces- (Under the Federal Ministry of interior during Peace time but falls under the Ministry of Defense during war time. Led by officers from the Pakistani Military)

Pakistan Rangers (Punjab and Sindh)

Frontier Corps (Kpk and Balochistan)

Gilgit Baltistan Scouts

Paramilitary forces under the Ministry of Defense

Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA)

Pakistan Coast Guard

Defense Security Force

Pakistan National Guard – Mujahid Force and Janbaaz Force

Federal Law Enforcement Agencies (solely under the federal ministry of Interior and led by the officers of the Police Service of Pakistan):

Frontier Constabulary

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)

Anti-Narcotics Force

Airports Security Force

National Highways & Motorway Police

Pakistan Railways Police

Philippines

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Vietnam

Vietnam Militia and Self-Defence Force

Europe

Albania

RENEA

Estonia

Estonian Defence League

Finland

Border Guard

Police Rapid Response Unit

France

Action Division of DGSE

National Gendarmerie

Marseille Naval Fire Battalion of the French Navy

Paris Fire Brigade of the French Army

Georgia

Mkhedrioni

Monadire

Italy

Lithuania

Lithuanian Riflemen's Union

State Border Guard Service

Public Security Service

Netherlands

Special Intervention Service

Poland

BOA KGP

Portugal

Guarda Nacional Republicana (National Republican Guard)

Russia

Paramilitary security in Russia

Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation

Kadyrovtsy

Fakel (allegedly)

Wagner Group (since 2023)

Redut (since 2022)

Africa Corps

Turkey

Village Guards

Ukraine

Noman Çelebicihan Battalion

Freedom of Russia Legion

Sheikh Mansur Battalion (since 2022)

United Kingdom

The London Metropolitan Police Specialist Firearms Command CO19.

Editorial summary

“List of paramilitary organizations” enters the record as wikimedia list. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, paramilitary and organizations can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2020, 2013, 2023—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, paramilitary and organizations.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of paramilitary organizations” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, paramilitary and organizations provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25344947. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2020, 2013 and 2023.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from List of paramilitary organizations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.