Organizers gave the green light on Friday for the 30th Dakar Rally to proceed as planned through the African state of Mauritania despite security fears prompted by recent al-Qaeda- linked attacks.
Mauritania has announced that it would mobilize 2,000 soldiers and 2,000 plainclothes police to monitor the rally as it passes through the country between Jan. 11 and Jan. 19.
"We are going ahead with the Mauritanian stages of the rally ... It now seems that the security situation is back on track," Etienne Lavigne, the French director of the event said.
"There is nothing to fear, every precaution has been put in place," Mauritanian Interior Minister Yall Zakaria said.
Zakaria said he told the rally inspectors that "all necessary measures have been taken by the government to ensure that the event's passage through Mauritania takes place in the best possible conditions."
"They left feeling reassured and comforted at the end of our discussions. [This week's] attacks are isolated incidents which should not be interpreted as proof that Mauritania is gripped by unrest," Zakaria said.
pledges
Zakaria's pledges appear to have won over an organizing team that arrived to examine conditions on Thursday, the same day that three soldiers were killed during an armed ambush in the northeast of the country.
Three days earlier, four French adventure tourists were shot dead and a fifth injured by three Mauritanians, said by government officials to have al-Qaeda links.
The suspects are still on the run after fleeing across the southeastern border with Senegal. Two of the men were previously arrested in connection with the extremist Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The group earlier this year declared allegiance to al-Qaeda and renamed itself al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb.
reinforcements
The new military reinforcements have been sent to the desert region between Algeria, Mauritania and Mali, where the GSPC is active, security officials said.
Terror threats from Mauritania, normally seen as a safe country to travel through, had already forced the cancelation of two planned stages between Nema and Timbuktu in neighboring Mali during last year's rally.
Security and safety issues were already the priority for the Dakar Rally starting in January after this year's edition was overshadowed by the tragic death of two motorcyclists.
South African Elmer Symons and Frenchman Eric Aubijoux became the latest victims of this controversial race that is much criticized for the reckless manner racers charge through uncharted nomadic terrain in northwest Africa.
Some 245 motorbikes, 20 quads, 205 cars and 100 trucks have registered -- 60 more than this year -- in the race which starts in Lisbon on Jan. 5 and covers 9,273km before finishing in the Senegalese capital Dakar on Jan. 20.
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