Dakar Rally Organizers Hope To Return To Africa When Security Is No Longer A Concern

Budapest, Hungary (AHN) - Organizers of the Dakar Rally are hoping to bring the event back to its traditional Africa route by 2012 when security is no longer an issue.

The 2008 Dakar series was cancelled 24 hours before the start in February due to terrorist threats. And just recently a new terrorist attack allegedly by Al-Qaida-linked militants happened again in Nouakchott, in Mauritania, where eight of the 15 stages of the rally were set to be staged.

"We're totally dependent on the geopolitical situation," Amaury Sports Organization owner Patrice Clerc said. "I don't know if it will be permissible for us to return by 2011 or 2012."

Clerc said that the race would return to its Africa route when "security is not an issue."

The 2009 event will be start in Argentina and Chile on January 3 up to the 18th. It will be the first time in the 30-year history of the race that the said event will not run its traditional route.