<p>Mauritania’s president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appeared was wounded late on Saturday night when a military patrol opened fire on his convoy about 40 km from the capital.<br /><br /></p>.<p>However, on Sunday he made a televised address calling for calm, hours after the incident which he said was “an accident”.<br /><br />Seen by the West as an ally against al-Qaeda’s increasing presence in the Sahara Desert, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has ruled over a northwest African country that has been largely stable since he seized power in a 2008 coup.<br /><br />“I want to calm all citizens,”Aziz said in a broadcast on state television from his hospital bed. “I want to reassure everyone about my state of health after this incident committed by error.”<br /><br />Soon after the broadcast, he was flown to former colonial power France for further treatment, a Mauritanian official said. Abdel Aziz won an election in 2009 in the largely desert country, straddles black and Arab Africa on the West coast of the continent.</p>
<p>Mauritania’s president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appeared was wounded late on Saturday night when a military patrol opened fire on his convoy about 40 km from the capital.<br /><br /></p>.<p>However, on Sunday he made a televised address calling for calm, hours after the incident which he said was “an accident”.<br /><br />Seen by the West as an ally against al-Qaeda’s increasing presence in the Sahara Desert, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has ruled over a northwest African country that has been largely stable since he seized power in a 2008 coup.<br /><br />“I want to calm all citizens,”Aziz said in a broadcast on state television from his hospital bed. “I want to reassure everyone about my state of health after this incident committed by error.”<br /><br />Soon after the broadcast, he was flown to former colonial power France for further treatment, a Mauritanian official said. Abdel Aziz won an election in 2009 in the largely desert country, straddles black and Arab Africa on the West coast of the continent.</p>