Mali has opened a judicial probe into the Air Algerie plane disaster as part of international efforts to determine the cause of the crash, Mali's Minister of Solidarity and Humanitarian Action said today.
"Mali opened a judicial inquiry immediately after the discovery of the plane... For manslaughter," Hamadou Konate told AFP after visiting the family of Bakary Diallo, the only Malian killed in the crash.
A total of 118 people died, with entire families were wiped out, when an Air Algerie plane crashed in Mali's remote, barren Gossi area, not far from the border with Burkina Faso last Thursday.
Travellers from Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Algeria, Spain, Canada, Germany and Luxembourg were also killed in the disaster, which is increasingly being blamed on bad weather that forced the pilots to change course.
France on Thursday opened a preliminary investigation for manslaughter led by the commanding general of the aviation police.
Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore on Saturday also announced an inquiry into the cause of the disaster after meeting with relatives of some crash victims in Ouagadougou.
"International cooperation is underway so that we can find out what happened to the plane," Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said Saturday after meeting with Algeria's Transport Minister Amar Ghoul.
