An army nurse at a French military base in northern Chad shot dead a Chadian soldier who had attacked him, triggering protests by local people, the region's governor told AFP on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in the base of Faya-Largeau, where troops are deployed under France's strategy of fighting jihadists in West Africa's Sahel.

"A Chadian soldier who was not in a normal state went to the French army base to get bandaged, picked up a scalpel and wounded a French military nurse," General Ali Maide Kebir, the governor of Borkou region, told AFP.

"The nurse used his firearm and killed him," he said.

"After hearing of the soldier's death, the people of Faya demonstrated all day long outside the entrance to the base and tried unsuccessfully to get inside," Maide Kebir said.

"The crowd dispersed at nightfall," he said, describing the attack on the nurse as an "isolated incident."

France is struggling with a wave of discontent among its former African colonies, where coups in Mali and Burkina Faso have prompted it to pull its forces out of those countries.

A senior officer with French forces based in the Chadian capital N'Djamena gave further details of the incident.

"He had to make use of his weapon... to defend himself."

The French and Chadian military have launched a joint inquiry, Maide Kebir said.

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