From Autosport.com:
Quote:
The driver of a back-up vehicle in the Paris-Dakar Rally has lost his leg after the car he was driving hit a land mine in Morocco.
Jose Eduardo Ribeiro from Portugal had left the rally’s designated route near a fortified sand wall, in an area on the border with Mauritania. The territory that the rally runs through has been disputed in recent years and has been mined by the Polisario Front, which is seeking independence for the Western Sahara region. The rebels had warned rally organisers in advance not to run through the land.
Event organiser Hubert Auriol said: "A back-up vehicle left the course. Soldiers who were nearby shouted warnings but then immediately they heard the explosion."
Ribeiro was flown to the United Nation’s mission headquarters in the main city of Western Sahara, Layoune. Further details of his condition are not yet known.
The incident casts yet another shadow on the event, which has claimed the lives of a number of its competitors and back-up crews over the years.
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I heard a news report that the Rally entering the 'disputed area' was to be taken as a sign of a failure in the ongoing peace between the two sides. The event organisers were reported to say that they couldn't see the problem - it was a sporting event.
This goes beyond the hi-jackings and terrorism of recent years.
But they'll be back next year.
Count on it!
