Bodies of Muslim preachers killed in Mali repatriated

NOUAKCHOTT: The bodies of nine of the Muslim preachers killed last week in neighboring Mali were repatriated to Mauritania on Wednesday, and the president of Mauritania stood in silence as the coffins were unloaded from the special flight in a somber ceremony marking the tragedy.

He was flanked by members of the Dawa sect, the non-violent school of Islam to which the preachers belonged. The nine were part of a group of 16 preachers who were traveling by truck from Mauritania to Mali for a religious conference of the Dawa sect which was supposed to start Friday. They were stopped at a checkpoint in the central Malian town of Diabaly, where all 16 as well as their driver were gunned down by Malian soldiers.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called the killing of the religious men "an odious crime that was committed due to the difficult political and security challenges that our brother nation is facing.

The Mauritanian leader repeated calls for an investigation, saying that the Malian government needs to get to the bottom of what happened. Mali has sent a special envoy, who met with the president in order to express Mali's condolences.