Mauritania drops Senegal threat

Senegal says Mauritania has suspended its threat to repatriate all Senegalese nationals from its territory over a row between the two countries about water-sharing.

The announcement was made by the Senegalese prime minister, Moustapha Niasse, but no reasons were given, and there's been no word yet from Mauritania.

Morocco, Gambia and Mali have all been attempting to mediate.

Thousands of Senegalese in Mauritania, and hundreds of Mauritanians living in Senegal, have already returned home. Senegal was on the point of evacuating the rest of its citizens from Mauritania. The crisis broke out when the new Senegalese government relaunched an old dam project in the north of the country on the river Senegal, which forms the border between the two countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service