The Moroccan army fires warning shots near border with Mauritania

The Moroccan army reportedly fired warning shots against a group of gold diggers near border separating Morocco from Mauritania on Tuesday. According to the Mauritanian private news agency Alakhbar, the incident took place near Bir Moghreïn, a town of northern Mauritania.

Well-informed sources told the agency that «the prospectors' cars approached the sand wall built by the Moroccan army». «No casualties were recorded during the shooting» it added.

This incident is the second of its kind since last December, when the Moroccan army and the Mauritanian army mistakenly exchanged fire.

Indeed, one of the patrols of the Mauritanian army, which was pursuing a group of traffickers in the border area near Inal, in the north of the country, then came under fire by mistake from Moroccan soldiers before the two parties recognized one another and stopped the shooting.