Niger has withdrawn from the military coalition fighting Islamist insurgency groups in the Lake Chad region of west-central Africa, saying it will focus instead on protecting its oil operations from jihadist attacks.

The announcement late Saturday comes amid rising tensions between the four countries bordering Lake Chad since a 2023 coup by Niger’s military.

In a bulletin read on state TV, the army said the operation under the Multinational Joint Task Force, active since 2015, would now be called “Nalewa Dole” following Niger’s withdrawal.

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.

The ensuing conflict, which has drawn in other jihadist groups such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has killed over 40,000 people and displaced around two million, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

But since the July 2023 coup, Niger’s military junta 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.

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”.