The 2007 killing of French tourists in Mauritania happened on 24 December 2007.^[1] The attack happened near Aleg, 250 km east of the capital Nouakchott.^[2]

The victims, five French tourists on holiday, were attacked while they were having a picnic.^[3] Four of them were killed and the fifth was seriously injured.^[4] There was one survivor; the victims were his two adult sons, brother, and a friend.^[5] The 2008 Dakar Rally was moved to central Europe (known as the 2008 Central Europe Rally when held in April) because of this incident due to concerns of a possible terrorist attack.

Mauritanian authorities arrested nine people on 7 January 2008.^[6] An assault rifle was recovered by police from a location close to the scene of the killings.^[7] The Mauritanian interior minister blamed a terrorist sleeper cell for the killings.^[8] Authorities say suspects are members of an extremist group linked to al-Qaida.^[9]

One of the suspects arrested in January, Sidi Ould Sidna, escaped from the police in March but was arrested again in April.^[10] Sidna had trained with the group Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, which confirmed Sidna was affiliated with their organization.^[11] In 2010, three men who claimed to be "soldiers of Al-Qaeda", Sidi Ould Sidna, Mohamed Ould Chabarnou, and Maarouf Ould Haiba, were sentenced to death by a Mauritanian court for the attack. Since Mauritania has not used the death penalty since the 1980s, their death sentence will likely be commuted to an extended prison sentence on appeal.^{[12][needs update]}