Updated

Mexico's government says it will create a special investigative unit to search for the missing, heeding a request by relatives of the disappeared who have been on a hunger strike for nine days.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam made the announcement Friday after meeting with a group of parents who have been on a hunger strike and living in tents outside his office.

Murillo Karam says the special unit will guarantee that the same investigators and forensic experts remain on the cases until they are completed.

He said more details about the new unit will be made public in a week.

President Enrique Pena Nieto's government has said it has a database containing the names of least 26,121 people who went missing during his predecessor's six-year administration.