Poor weather was the most likely cause of the crash of an Air Algerie flight in the West African state of Mali that killed 118 people on board, French officials said.

French officials have dispatched a military unit to secure the site in restive northern Mali where an Air Algerie plane crashed with the loss of 116 people.

There are fears today that scattered separatist violence may hamper an eventual investigation into what is the third major international aviation disaster in a week.

An army general in Burkina Faso who is involved in the search for the missing Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people, claims that a witness saw a plane coming down in Mali.

More than a dozen people have been injured in two car bomb attacks in Niger.