Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have declared their intention to establish a joint force to combat jihadist threats within their borders, as announced by Niger's army chief Moussa Salaou Barmou.

The specifics regarding the size and operational details of this force were not disclosed during Barmou's televised speech on Wednesday, following discussions held in the capital Niamey.

Over the past year, groups affiliated with both Islamic State and al-Qaeda have perpetrated numerous deadly attacks in the region.

The military administrations of these three nations have forged increasingly close ties in recent months, culminating in the formation of a mutual defense pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) last September, leading to their withdrawal from the international G5 force established to combat Islamist extremism in the region.

Despite promises by the military regimes to address the decade-long conflict with jihadist groups, violence in West Africa's Sahel region has escalated. Furthermore, all three countries have severed their relationships with France, their former colonial power, which maintained a significant military presence in the Sahel for years.

Mali's leaders have also instructed the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma to withdraw "without delay," a process that was completed in December.

In response, the military regimes have strengthened their ties with Russia, which has stepped in to fill the resulting vacuum.

Additionally, they have announced their departure from the West African economic bloc Ecowas, having previously been suspended from it.

Ecowas has been urging the military regimes to swiftly return to democratic governance and has imposed travel and economic sanctions on them, some of which were recently lifted or relaxed as part of Ecowas's efforts to promote dialogue.

She said Mr Baldwin would argue that "it was not foreseeable that there was a real bullet in that gun".