Al-Qaeda threats against the traditional Dakar Rally and an attack in Mauritania forced organizers to cancel the annual race on Friday, the eve of the 5,760-mile trek across the North African desert. It was the first time the automobile, motorbike and truck rally has been called off in its 30-year history.
In a statement, organizers blamed "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations," the Dec. 24 killings of French tourists in Mauritania and international tensions. "No other decision but the cancellation of the sporting event could be taken," organizers said, according to the AP.
France, where the race organizers are based, had urged the rally to avoid Mauritania after the four family members died in an attack blamed on a terror cell that uses the Mauritanian desert as a hideout. Officials claim the cell is linked to the Algeria-based al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, which has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks.
Patrice Clerc, who heads the company that organizes the rally, told The Associated Press the threats against the rally came from al-Qaeda's North Africa wing. He conveyed the French government warned explicitly that the race was threatened but did not share its intelligence.
"Yes, we perhaps bowed to terrorism but our company today does not have the right to run this risk for all those people who trust it," Clerc noted. "We don't have the right to play games with safety."
Mauritania's foreign minister slammed the decision to scrap the race. "This decision has no relationship with the actual security situation in Mauritania, a country that has always been stable and peaceful," said Foreign Minister Babah Sidi Abdallah.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he did not want to "stigmatize" Mauritania, but warned of the risks "in a very uncertain region and one crossed by the networks of al-Qaeda in North Africa." "We simply want those who risk a lot to benefit from our information," Kouchner told RTL radio. "We are warning them: It's dangerous."
Al-Qaeda in North Africa, in a Dec. 29 statement posted on the Internet criticized the Mauritanian government for "providing suitable environments to the infidels for the rally."
The race had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.
