A.S.O. condemns the terrorist menace that annihilates a year of hard work, engagement and passion for all the participants and the different actors of the world’s biggest off-road rally.

Today’s announcement from Lisbon and here and here on the eve of the 2008 Dakar (January 5-20) that the event’s been cancelled has rocked the off-road rally community. Organizers list the Christmas Eve murders in Mauritania of four French citizens by terrorists, coupled with continuing threats by reported terrorist organizations aimed at the event and a French government advisory against all travel in the region as reasons for the cancellation.