Burkina Faso and Niger were withdrawing from a  military alliance fighting a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region of West Africa, they announced on Saturday.

The countries' military leaders said they had already quit the Group of Five (G5) Sahel alliance on November 29.

"The organization is failing to achieve its objectives. Worse, the legitimate ambitions of our countries of making the G5 Sahel a zone of security and development are hindered by institutional red tape from a previous era, which convinces us that our process of independence and dignity is not compatible with G5 participation in its current form," they said.

Mali left the force last year, with Chad and Mauritania remaining the only members of the alliance, which has now practically dissolved.

Alliance of military juntas

In a veiled reference to France, Burkina Faso and Niger said, "the G5 Sahel cannot serve foreign interests to the detriments of our people, and even less the dictates of any power in the name of a partnership that treats them like children, denying the sovereignty of our peoples."

The coup leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger had already signed up to the so-called Alliance of Sahel States (AES) which they said would "establish an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance."

Chad and Mauritania were left out of the new alliance.

France deployed troops to the Sahel in 2014 to support in the fight against groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the "Islamic State."

Relations between France and Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have soured since the coups in those countries, and France reduced its military presence in the region.

lo/kb (AFP, LUSA)