A young man blew himself up in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, on Saturday evening. Nobody else was killed.

It was the country’s first suicide bombing. Some reports suggest the intended target may have been the French embassy and point a finger at Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Though the French embassy seems a plausible target, the Moor Next Doorblog is not convinced of an al-Qaeda connection. 

The attack came just three days after ex-coup leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz was sworn in as “democratically-elected” president following an Iranian-style election.

France, which seems happy to get its hands filthy in Mauritania, was indecently hasty in welcoming Ould Abdel Aziz’s supposed electoral victory. So the attack could possibly have been a comment on that.

Whoever was responsible, though, it’s basically good news for the Mauritanian president who can now look forward to even more French support on account of his heroic stand against terrorism.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 10 August 2009