West Africa's volatile Sahel region which has been rocked by a string of coups since 2020 faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
A snapshot country by country:
- Niger -
The jihadist insurgency spread to Niger and Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2015, notably at the "three borders" area.
In Niger, soldiers in July 2023 overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, pointing to the "degradation of the security situation" under his watch -- a belief shared by many Nigeriens.
Twenty-nine soldiers were killed in western Niger in an attack by suspected jihadists on October 3, the deadliest of a dozen attacks which have killed 130 people since the military took power.
On October 10 the French army said it had begun withdrawing its 1,400 troops from Niger after being ordered out of the country by the coup leaders.
- Mali -
In Mali jihadist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012 and anger at the government's failure to stem the violence helped spark two coups in 2020 and 2021.
It currently faces heightened activity by jihadist groups and a resumption of hostilities in the north by predominantly Tuareg armed groups.
Since August, there has been a series of attacks against army positions and civilians in the Timbuktu and Gao regions.
The junta, which has since turned towards Russia, pushed out traditional ally France's anti-jihadist force in 2022 and the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA in 2023.
- Burkina Faso -
Burkina Faso saw two military coups last year, also triggered by anger at failures to stem a jihadist insurgency.
When he seized power, Captain Ibrahim Traore set himself "two to three months" to improve security, but one year on, jihadist attacks still plague the nation.
More than 6,000 people have died in attacks since the start of this year, of 17,000 dead since 2015, according to a count by the NGO monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
France withdrew its troops in February 2023.
- Chad -
In Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno is the transitional president pending a return to civilian rule following the death of his father Idriss Deby Itno in 2021.
The CCMSR -- the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic -- is one of a constellation of rebel groups that have a decades-long history of seeking to overturn Chad's regime.
The remote and dangerous rebel region Tibesti is the theatre for sporadic but intense episodes of fighting.
Week-long clashes broke out in the area in June, with different versions of events -- the army said it killed 23 rebels and insurgents said they had killed 15 soldiers.
- Spillover -
Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo are increasingly facing threats of a jihadist spillover from Burkina Faso and Mali.
Around 40 soldiers and 100 civilians have been killed in a jihadist "war" in northern Togo, President Faure Gnassingbe said in April.