PARIS (AP) — The Dakar Rally, one of the world's toughest and best-known off-road races, has been moved out of Saudi Arabia next year after what organizers called “recent developments in the region.”

The rally was scheduled for January. It will now be held “in a different territory” to be announced later before a planned return to Saudi Arabia in 2028, organizers Amaury Sport Organisation and Saudi Motorsport Company said in a statement Sunday.

It's the latest in a series of sports events to be moved out of Saudi Arabia this year over the Iran war and also deadly strikes by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia has hosted the Dakar since 2020. There have been reports that a move to Morocco is being considered.

If that happens, it would be the first time the Dakar has been held in Africa since 2007. The event began as a competition from Paris to Senegal's capital Dakar. It was canceled at short notice in 2008 over security concerns in North Africa. Since then, it was held first in South America, then in Saudi Arabia.