Two people have been injured in a suicide attack outside the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott, officials have said.
Police said the bomber, a young man, detonated his explosive belt near the wall of the embassy on Saturday evening.
Two French security employees, who were jogging nearby, were injured and taken to hospital after the blast.
"The Westerners are in hospital but their lives are not in danger," a police official said.
The attack comes three days after Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who staged an internationally condemned coup a year ago, took office as president in the former French colony.
In recent years, armed groups have carried out a number of attacks in the country.
Last month a judge charged three men for the murder of a US aid worker, killed in Nouakchott.
The men were said to be connected to al-Qaeda.
The group claimed responsibility for the murder, saying it was in retaliation for US military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2008, 12 Mauritanian soldiers patrolling north of the capital were ambushed and shot dead by suspected al-Qaeda fighters.
Thankfully no non-Muslims were killed in the attack.
It is only a matter of time before terrorists manage to inflict serious casualties (again).