An attack that killed six Chadian soldiers at a border post with the Central African Republic will be jointly investigated by the two countries, after a high-level meeting Tuesday appeared to ease tensions.

Chad has blamed the CAR army for the attack, and says five of the soldiers were abducted then executed in the incident on Sunday, which it labelled a "war crime" that would "not go unpunished".

CAR had put the blame on rebels it said its soldiers had been pursuing.

At the meeting between the two states' foreign ministers, "the CAR side, after expressing surprise at the attack, firmly condemned it and expressed its profound sympathy to the government and people of Chad", a joint statement released afterwards said.

The two parties "underlined the urgency of clarifying the circumstances in which this attack took place" and agreed to set up an independent international commission of inquiry.

The two sides also agreed to work together to strengthen security along the border.

Earlier the mood was more tense, with Chadian government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah telling AFP that the attacks were premeditated and that the Central African authorities must "accept and admit their errors".

He had said Chad would press for an international investigation, adding: "depending on what these emissaries tell us, we will see what we can do".

The three CAR ministers carried a letter from President Faustin Archange Touadera, spokesman of the CAR presidency Albert Yaloke Mokpeme told AFP.

The team are due to meet Chad's junta leader, Mahamat Idriss Deby, on Wednesday.

The incident has placed the spotlight on the occasionally fraught relations between Chad -- ruled by a junta that took power just six weeks ago -- and the CAR, an unstable country battling powerful armed groups.

CAR regularly accuses its northern neighbour of supporting armed rebel groups from inside Chad.

Ugandan minister hurt in assassination bid: govt
Kampala (AFP) June 1, 2021 - Uganda's transport minister, who used to lead the armed forces, was shot Tuesday in an attack which left his daughter and bodyguard dead, a government spokesman said.

The minister, General Edward Katumba Wamala, who was chief of the defense forces between 2013 and 2017, came under fire while driving in Kampala, said government spokesman Chris Baryomunsi.

"There was an attempt on his (Wamala's) life this morning ... His daughter and bodyguard were shot and they died at the scene," Baryomunsi told AFP Tuesday.

"General Katumba has been rushed to hospital with bullet wounds and he is receiving treatment, the crime scene has been taken over by the investigators," he added.

"This could be a case of assassination by criminal elements but the investigations will establish the motive and those behind" the attack.

Witnesses to the attack told local television stations that four masked men riding two motorbikes fired scores of bullets at Wamala's vehicle.

Images from the scene showed Wamala's car -- an official army vehicle easily identified by its distinctive military green number plates -- riddled with about a dozen bullet holes in the rear and driver side of the vehicle.

Tuesday's shooting is the latest in a series of attempted killings of high-profile targets by motorcycle-riding assassins in Uganda's capital.

In June 2018 Ibrahim Abiriga, a leading politician from the ruling National Resistance Movement party, led by President Yoweri Museveni, was gunned down alongside his bodyguard in similar circumstances.

In March 2017 witnesses described four masked assailants riding two motorcycles firing a hail of bullets at Uganda police spokesman, Andrew Kawessi, who was killed near the site of Wamala's murder.

In March 2015, Joan Kagezi, a prosecutor in charge of investigating a jihadist attack in Kampala in 2010, was shot dead by men on motorbikes as she returned home.

No one has been convicted of any of those killings.

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France says Mali elections must remain 'absolute priority'
Paris (AFP) May 31, 2021
The French government warned Mali's military leaders Monday that holding free elections next year must remain an "absolute priority," after a second coup in the West African country in less than a year. The warning comes after Mali was suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at an emergency summit meeting on Sunday. But the group held off on imposing sanctions or insisting on a reinstatement of Mali's deposed transitional president and prime minister, who were brief ... read more