W. African State warns neighbour

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 6

W. African State warns neighbour

NZPA-Reuter Bamako, Mali Mali is giving Bourkina Fasso a week to withdraw from a disputed border area, into which it sent troops and census-takers last week. The decision was disclosed at a rally in the Malian capital, one of many held in Bamako in an atmosphere of rising anger over

the episode. Ferdinand Nagozie Berthe, a senior official of the Democratic Union of Malian People, said that the deadline — Saturday (local time) — had been fixed at a meeting of the Government and the party executive. The two West African States have been at odds over the 160 km long strip of territory since both ceased

to be French colonies 25 years ago. Upper Volta, as Bourkina Fasso was then known, and Mali fought a brief war in 1974, but agreed in 1983 to take the dispute to the International Court of Justice, in The Hague. The latest flare-up appears to have been touched off by Bourkina' Fasso’s wish to enumerate the

Ble of the disputed area ig a census. 1 Mali made the conflict public at the week-end, saying that Bourkinabe officials had entered four Malian villages a' week ago, followed by troops who hoisted their national flag, beat up and kidnapped local chiefs. The Bourkina Fasso account, issued in Ouaga-

dougou from the office of the President, Captain Thomas Sankara, said that its census-takers had been obstructed by Malians on what it insisted was Bourkinabe territory. The statement said that Bourkina Fasso would defend itself if necessary but added that “war and armed conflicts should be avoided at all cost.”