There have been around 25 military coups in Sahel countries since the 1960s. The USA and France have sent in special forces to try and help but without success so far. Some have been killed.

A joint force of 5,000 troops from military-led neighbours Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali will soon deploy in their troubled ...

Three junta-ruled countries in Africa's Sahel region will join forces to create a 5,000-strong unit to fight the jihadist violence that has for years plagued the nations, officials said on Tuesday.

Niger was one of the few democracies left in the Sahel belt which stretches across ... militants - was defiant after soldiers announced a coup on Wednesday. But he has been detained, the army ...

In the first decades after independence in the 1960s, there were occasional military coups elsewhere in the continent, but in the past quarter-century they have been concentrated in the Sahel region.