President meet French minister over deepening row

The President of Mauritania, Maaouiya Ould Taya, has met the French minister of co-operation, Charles Joslin, to discuss a deepening row between the two countries over the arrest in France of a Mauritanian army captain accused of torture, according to the BBC. Their meeting at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Algiers this week follows a decision by Mauritania to expel all French military advisers, recall its military officers undergoing training in France and reintroduce visas for French citizens. A Mauritanian government official told IRIN on Wednesday that despite media reports to the contrary, some 40 French military advisers who had been on a cooperation mission in Mauritania, were still in the country. He said a date for their expulsion had not yet been set. The Mauritanian officer, Ely Ould Dha, was arrested while undergoing military training in France and is alleged to have tortured two people in prison near Nouakchott in 1990 and 1991. The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, described the move to investigate Ould Dha as "a positive step in ensuring justice for the victims of gross human rights abuses committed in Mauritania over the years".