France slams suicide blast near Mauritania embassy

France on Sunday condemned a suicide bombing near its embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott in which three people, two of them French gendarmes, were slightly injured. “France condemns with the greatest firmness the attack committed yesterday in Nouakchott near the French Embassy,” a Foreign Ministry statement said, and also assured Mauritania of its support in the fight against terrorism.

The bomber was wearing an explosives-laden belt, Mauritanian police said, adding he set off the explosives just before 1900 GMT Saturday near the wall of the French Embassy complex.

The source said no group had yet come forward to claim responsibility for the attack outside the embassy walls, which an eyewitness said caused no major damage to the building.

In Paris, a French diplomatic source said that local authorities had launched an investigation to identify the culprits. “They are investigating. We don’t know who did it or their motives, that’s the subject of the investigation,” he told Reuters.

The attack took place three days after Mohammad Ould Abdel-Aziz, who toppled Mauritania’s first democratically elected leader in a coup last year, was sworn in as president of the Islamic state promising to make the fight against Al-Qaeda a priority.

Defeated opponents denounced his poll victory last month as a fraud, but former colonial power France said it was ready to re-engage with the Saharan country, applauding his tough anti-terrorist stance.

Al-Qaeda activity has increased in northwest Africa and the Sahara desert, but attacks in Mauritania are infrequent.

In June, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the terrorist group’s north African branch, claimed responsibility for the shooting of an American aid worker in Mauritania, saying it was in retaliation for US military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In December 2007, four French tourists were killed by group in Aleg, in the south of the country, and the Israeli Embassy was attacked in 2008.

Three men are in jail awaiting trial for the 2007 killings of the French tourists. The three are also suspected of being members of AQIM.

France is one of Mauritania’s biggest partners in both trade and aid. In 2007 it set aside $134 million in a four-year aid package, only 30 percent of which has been paid. Paris said this week it would look to release the rest.

The European Union suspended aid payments to Mauritania in protest at the military coup last August, but has since indicated it may be willing to restart cooperation.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=105093.