Posted on Monday 10 August 2009
Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
A suicide bomber has blown himself up outside the French embassy on Saturday in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
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The young man, a negro-Mauritanian, was dressed in boubou – a traditional loose outfit, and was wearing a belt packed with explosives which he detonated as two Frenchmen, who are employees at the embassy, jogged by, AFP reported.

The Frenchmen, slightly hurt, were immediately rushed to the hospital. Another victim was a Mauritanian lady, who was also passing by. She received minor injuries, but doctors say she is doing fine.

Mauritanian authorities, who have commenced investigations, say the French embassy was certainly the bomber’s target, although no damages were done to the building.

The bomber died in the blast, his body ripping across the street according to eyewitnesses. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is coming only three days after Mohamed Abdel Aziz was sworn in as president.

Last June, a US aid worker was killed in Mauritanian by a group linked to Al-Qaeda, which operates in several north-western African states.
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