Sahel drug gang battle - 4 dead
Four people were killed when drug traffickers clashed in the desert zone between Mali and Algeria, over the spoils from a massive drug sale, officials said on Monday. A source from the governor's office in Timbuktu in northern Mali said the deceased were from Mali and Niger. "Four people were killed during a fight between drug traffickers which is under way in the Sahel. It is about the haul from a ton of Indian hemp [dagga] and cocaine," the source said on condition of anonymity. The information was confirmed by an advisor to the governor. "The battle is going on at the moment on the border between Mali and Algeria between an armed group of drug traffickers from Mali and Niger, and another group aligned with the Polisario Front," the independence movement in the Western Sahara, said the advisor. "They don't agree on how to share the sale of a ton of drugs."