All in all, the Mauritanian Jihadi movement seems very underdeveloped, and mostly a weak offshoot of the Algerian guerrilla, with little efficient leadership of its own, not to mention the kind of organization/infrastructure such as training camps would require. That said, I do think the country could potentially become very fertile ground for such movements in a longer-term perspective, especially if political and economic conditions deteriorate. But, if I allow myself to speculate a bit: for AQ/AQIM to try to exploit that, they would presumably want to first build up what resources they already have in the neighbourhood (the movement in Algeria and the Algeria/Mali border region), perhaps letting Mauritania serve as some sort of strategic depth for the time being while also cultivating groups there with an eye to the future.

Link to the original article: http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2008/10/23/957522.html