World Notes MAURITANIA

Border disputes between Senegal and its northern neighbor Mauritania are not unusual, thanks to the fondness of Mauritanian camels for Senegalese grass. Thus when two Senegalese peasants were shot near the village of Diawara last week the incident seemed unremarkable. But, fanned by the Senegalese media, the deaths ignited long-smoldering ethnic and social tensions between the black Senegalese and the Mauritanian Moors. More than 200 died when civilians from both countries attacked one another in border towns as well as in Senegal's capital, Dakar, and in Mauritania's two major cities. Each country used its army to restore order.

On Friday violence flared again in Dakar as pillaging of Mauritanian shops continued and returning Senegalese told stories of Mauritanian atrocities in Nouakchott. As 20,000 Mauritanians, protected by army troops, gathered at Dakar's international fairground for repatriation, the Senegalese government sent a warning: if Mauritanian security forces proved to have been involved in the killing, the Senegalese reserved the right to retaliate.