Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are moving ahead with plans to form a "confederation", reports Reuters.
The three countries are all led by military juntas, and the confederation is seen as an attempt to deal with the increasingly difficult security situation in West Africa, where Islamist groups such as IS are on the rise.
The countries are "determined to create the three-state coalition", writes Mali's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement after a meeting on Thursday.
The announcement comes after the countries withdrew from the African cooperation organization ECOWAS and sent home the French troops that were previously stationed in the countries.
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UN: IS growing - benefiting from African instability
The political situation in the region of the Sahel and West Africa means that the terrorist group IS is growing and gaining more and more ability to carry out terrorist acts abroad, AP reports.
- They take advantage of the political instability and expand their influence, their operations and their territorial control, Natalia Gherman, director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, told the news agency.
According to the UN, almost half of the terrorist attacks in the world affect Africa, and roughly 25 percent of them take place in the Sahel.
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