Terrorism and Dakar

The Dakar rally has been cancelled. A real blow for Mauritania, where half the race should have taken place.

On Christmas Eve, four French tourists were killed in a roadside attack in the southern part of Mauritania, a region which prior to the incident was considered relatively safe.

The incident was first reported as a violent accident, but rumours of an attack led by an al-Qaeda branch in Northern Africa quickly made the headlines.
Three days later, three soldiers died in a terrorist attack. 
As the terrorist threat in Mauritania grew menacing, French authorities and rally organisers jointly decided to cancel the event, just one day before the start of the race. The decision was not appreciated by the Mauritanian government, which relied on the race's international audience to promote the country’s image.

Abdulaye Mamadou Ba, a Mauritanian government spokesperson, stressed that “the country remained secure despite the isolated accident that occured. I am sorry that French authorities did not trust the security put in place by Mauritanian authorities, because to cancel the rally means giving credit to terrorism.”

Is Mauritania becoming a hotbed for terrorism?

In Lehleiwa, where the French tourists were killed, neighbours are shocked.
“We are good Muslims, our religion forbids us from committing such a crime. We are so sorry for what happened, we are good Muslims, and we pray to Allah to forgive us.”

“They are known criminals, they live in their own world, but we don’t have anything to do with them,” they added, referring to the attackers. Indeed, two of the three assailants had already been jailed for killing 15 in a terrorist attack aimed at a military casern. They were freed in June with 20 other extremists, by the newly elected president, Sidi Mohmamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

One of the hardliners, Abdallai Ould Aminou, has moved to Arafat, the old town of the capital, Nouakchott, where he is free to speak out. Although his speech seems to have lost its original violence, he maintains that his country, already an Islamic republic, needs to be more ‘Islamized’.
“The French need to understand that if you kill a Muslim soul, the killer has to be executed. And if someone commits adultery, he or she has to be whipped. And if someone terrorizes others, so they have to have their hands cut off. These are the principles of the Human Rights as Allah knows humans better than they do.”

Mauritanians thought they were safe from terrorism. Today, it makes the headlines of every paper in the country. For the director of the monthly magazine ‘Tahalil’, terrorism ought not to be ignored. With two terrorist attacks in three days, Mauritania has become the last of the North African countries to be struck by extremists. It cannot be compared to its neighbouring nations, but the menace is now very much alive.