Are terrorists behind the French team’s car bombing? Investigation may lead to cancellation of Dakar Rally

Will this year’s Dakar Rally be cancelled? This is the question that is currently being addressed by the French authorities. It cannot be ruled out that the assistance car of the French team Sodicars Racing was attacked by terrorists. The car bombing is still under investigation.

30. in December, a very negative event occurred – the assistance car of the French Sodicars Racing team exploded outside the Donatello Hotel in Jeddah.

A total of six passengers were originally supposed to travel in the car. However, while five of them were not injured, driver Philippe Boutron suffered a very serious leg injury.

The local authorities have since stepped up various security measures, but the incident continues to worry the entire bivouac as well as the French authorities.

On Friday 7 January, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian opened up the possibility of cancelling the rally in an interview on the BFM TV morning show. Asked by the presenter whether the car explosion in Jeddah was a terrorist attack, the minister replied as follows.

“It could be. We made it very clear very quickly and we told the organisers and the Saudi officials that we have to be very transparent about what just happened,” the minister was quoted by Motorsport as saying in the interview.

“There have been terrorist acts against French interests on their soil in the past and it is important to protect the lives of our citizens. That is why the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has been called in and its statements are such that a terrorist attack may indeed have taken place,” he added.

“We immediately thought that it might be better to cancel this big event. But the organisers were of the opinion that it was not. But we have to be very cautious. They have managed to successfully increase security, but the question of cancellation is still on the table,” he concluded.

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office announced on January 4 that it was launching an investigation into the potential terrorist attack in Jeddah and said that both Saudi and French authorities were also looking into the case.

It should be noted that Boutron, who was due to take part in this year’s Dakar Rally, is president of French second division football club US Orleans. In the last 48 hours, he has come out of the induced coma he was placed in after being evacuated to Percy Military Hospital in Clamart.

Meanwhile, the Dakar Rally has been cancelled before, in 2008 over the killing of four tourists in Mauritania. The then rally was due to start in Portugal, with Senegal as the final destination.

Sources