Niger has withdrawn from the military coalition fighting armed groups in the Lake Chad region of Africa, saying it will focus instead on protecting its oil operations from attacks.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions between the four countries bordering Lake Chad since a 2023 coup by Niger's military.
The operation under the Multinational Joint Task Force, active since 2015, would now be called "Nalewa Dole" following Niger's withdrawal, the Nigerien army said in a bulletin read on state TV on Saturday.
The move "reflects a stated intent to reinforce security for oil sites", the bulletin stated, without further elaboration.
The four countries that surround Lake Chad -- Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria -- have been battling insurgencies since 2009, after a spate of violent campaigns by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria's northeast spilled into its neighbours.
Chad now joins other Sahel countries including Niger and Mali in ending security and defence partnerships with their former colonial ruler.
The ensuing conflict, which has drawn in other terrorist groups such as a Daesh affiliate known as ISWAP, has killed over 40,000 people and displaced millions, causing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
But since the July 2023 coup, Niger's military government has accused Nigeria of supporting foreign forces in a bid to destabilise it, which Abuja denies.
Oil infrastructure in southeast Niger meanwhile, in particular a pipeline leading from the landlocked country to Benin, regularly face attacks by armed groups.
The governor of Niger's Diffa region, General Ibrahim Bagadoma, said at a regional summit in February: "The problem is that some are making efforts, while others are undermining them. We have to present a united front and end foreign interferences in our region."
Late last year, Chad had threatened to withdraw from the Joint Task Force after an attack killed around 40 of its soldiers, citing an "absence of mutualised efforts".
