French President Emmanuel Macron is promising joint military action against armed groups in the Sahel region of Africa early next year.
The announcement came at a summit he is hosting of the Sahel G5 nations: Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.
The Sahel region is a large area of the Southern Sahara desert where groups such as ISIL and al-Qaeda are increasingly active.
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull has more.