Shot Mauritanian president to be flown to Paris

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will be flown Sunday to Paris for further treatment after he was operated in Nouakchott’s military hospital to remove a “bullet from his body,” a security source told AFP.

The president will go to Paris for “complementary care in France in a specialised hospital,” the source said on condition of anonymity. Abdel Aziz was wounded on Saturday when an army unit fired on his convoy in what the government said was an accidental shooting.

The source said that an initial operation had been performed on Abdel Aziz at a military hospital in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott “to remove the bullet from his body,” the source said.

He did not specify where exactly Abdel Aziz was shot, saying only: “In any event, his life is not in danger, the vital organs were not affected.”

Unconfirmed reports in Mauritanian media said that Abdel Aziz was shot in either the arm or the abdomen.

Abdel Aziz was wounded after an army unit opened fire at his convoy on Saturday in what the government said was an accident that left him “slightly wounded.”

A security source had told AFP earlier that Abdel Aziz was hit in the arm by a bullet that an unknown gunman had fired at him as the president was returning to the capital from his weekend retreat.