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Nouakchott rescinds expulsion order

    ABIDJAN

    Mauritania's government rescinded on Saturday an order for some 100,000 Senegalese to leave Mauritania within 15 days.

    Announcing the decision, Mauritanian Interior Minister Dah Ould Abdel Jelil said on Saturday in Nouakchott that all Senegalese were safe in the country.

    Mauritanian police had given Senegalese a fortnight to leave the country after Mauritania charged that water was being pumped from the Senegal river, which separates the two countries, causing land to dry up on the Mauritania bank of the waterway. Nouakchott's claim followed reports that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had announced plans to use the Senegal
    River for irrigation.

    However, following his return on Friday from a visit to Mali, Wade said he had "never telephoned (president) Maouya Ould Sidy Ahmed Taya" to say he intended to draw water from the river.

    During the crisis, Senegal did not ask Mauritanians to leave and Wade reiterated on Friday that "Senegal would never expel an African" because Africans were at home in his country, the privately owned Dakar newspaper, `Sud Quotidien', reported.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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