EXPERTS IN MALI TO INVESTIGATE MAURITANIAN CIVILIAN DISAPPEARANCES

A delegation from Mauritania has arrived in neighbouring Mali to investigate the recent disappearance of a number of Mauritanians from a border area in January and early March.

Locals have accused the Malian army of rounding up and killing as many as 44 Mauritanians in the second incident alone.

The delegation, made up of police and military officers, is part of a hurriedly created joint committee to investigate what the Mauritanians called “recurring criminal acts by the Malian army”.

The committee was set up last Friday when Mali sent its foreign minister to Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, to try to curb rising tensions between the two west African countries.

Meanwhile, both governments have agreed to run joint border patrols.