Mali accuses Algeria of shooting down a surveillance drone, recalls ambassador

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BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) -Mali accused neighbouring Algeria of shooting down one of its surveillance drones near their shared border in a statement read out by the security minister on national TV on Sunday.

The West African country and its allies Burkina Faso and Niger will recall their ambassadors from Algeria for consultations over the incident, they said in a separate joint statement on Sunday.

Mali said the drone wreckage was found 9.5 kilometres south of the border with Algeria after it was shot down in the night between March 31 and April 1.

The government said it had concluded “with absolute certainty that the Malian Armed Forces drone was destroyed in a premeditated hostile action by the Algerian regime.”

The three Sahel countries said in their joint statement that they energetically condemned the “irresponsible act by the Algerian regime.”

Algeria’s Defence Ministry on April 1 said the army had shot down an “armed surveillance drone” that violated the North African country’s airspace near Tinzaouaten, a community that straddles the border, without providing further details.

Mali’s army said in a statement at the time that one of its unmanned aircraft had crashed while on a routine surveillance mission.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo, Bate Felix and Abdollah Ag Mohamed; Writing by Portia Crowe; Editing by Leslie Adler)