Mali paid homage to two French journalists shot dead in the west African nation's rebel-infested northern desert as the hunt for the killers by French troops and Malian security forces intensified.
Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and killed by what French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said were "terrorist groups" in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.
"We will do everything to find the culprits," Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed as he met in Bamako with members of the management of Radio France Internationale (RFI) yesterday, the station where the pair worked.
"Today even, we have opened a criminal investigation into the killings and tonight French investigators are expected here to work hand-in-hand with their Malian counterparts," he added.
The victims were flown to Bamako on Sunday night, where hundreds of Malian reporters and RFI colleagues marched through the capital in silent tribute ahead of their expected repatriation late on Monday.
"We organised this silent march to say 'never again' -- the perpetrators of this crime must be punished," said Makan Kone, president of the capital's media association, the Bamako Press House.
Keita later attended a ceremony at Bamako airport with several government ministers in honour of the journalists, at which he said he was in contact with French leader Francois Hollande and the investigation was "progressing".
The president said he thought of Dupont, a correspondent with years of experience reporting on Africa, as his "own daughter".
A police source in Gao, the main city in northern Mali, said "a dozen suspects" had been detained but a source close to Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian denied there had been any arrests.
The killings have shaken France, which just days ago was celebrating the return of four hostages who had been held for three years after being abducted in Mali's neighbour Niger.
Fabius told RTL radio yesterday that "operations" were under way in Mali in a bid to "identify a certain number of people in camps".
