/ 5 June 2000

MAURITANIA GIVING SENEGALESE THE BOOT

SENEGALESE living in Mauritania have been given 15 days to leave the country. The secretary general of the Senegalese Association in Nouakchott, Ibou Badiane, said on Monday that he had been advised by police of the decision to kick Senegalese citizens out of Mauritania. However, had pledged that Senegalese citizens could leave “in all safety and confidence.” Prime Minister Moustapha Niasse of Senegal was expected in Nouakchott on Monday to try and calm increasing tension between the two west African states over a vast irrigation project drawing water from the River Senegal, which runs along their common border.