On 24 December 2007, a group of French tourists were attacked near the town of Aleg, located roughly 250 km east of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. The attack killed four members of the group and left a fifth survivor seriously injured. The victims were described as the survivor's two adult sons, his brother, and a friend.
In the aftermath, Mauritanian police recovered an assault rifle from a location close to the scene of the killings. Mauritanian authorities, including the country's interior minister, attributed the attack to a terrorist sleeper cell, stating that the suspects were believed to be members of an extremist group linked to al-Qaida.
On 7 January 2008, Mauritanian authorities arrested nine people in connection with the killings. One of those arrested, Sidi Ould Sidna, escaped from police custody in April 2008 but was rearrested later that same month. According to available reporting, Sidna had trained with the group Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, and the organization itself confirmed his affiliation with them.
In 2010, a Mauritanian court sentenced three men to death for the attack. The three — Sidi Ould Sidna, Mohamed Ould Chabarnou, and Maarouf Ould Haiba — had claimed to be "soldiers of Al-Qaeda."
