Algiers evokes a “refusal to comply”

The case will not help the already strained relations between Morocco and Algeria. The Algerian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday (September 3rd) that “warning shots” were carried out on Tuesday by Algerian coastguards and then “shots fired” in front of “a refusal to comply” of Moroccans on Jet-Skis, after the announcement of the death of two vacationers.

According to Moroccan media and lawyers who said they wanted to file a complaint in France, Bilal Qissi, a Franco-Moroccan holidaymaker and his cousin Abdelali Mechouar, holder of a regular residence permit in France, were killed by the Algerian coast guard. after getting lost. They had left the seaside resort of Saidia (north-west), on the border with Algeria, aboard Jet-Ski, according to the testimony of the older brother of Mr. Qissi, Mohamed who was able to return to the beach.

“During a security and control patrol in our territorial waters, a coastguard unit intercepted, on Tuesday at 7:47 p.m. [20 h 47, heure de Paris]three Jet-Ski having clandestinely crossed our territorial waters »explains the Algerian ministry in a press release. “After issuing an audible warning and summoning them to stop several times, the defendants refused to comply and fled by performing dangerous maneuvers”according to the same source.

After several “warning shots”, “shots were fired forcing one of the Jet-Skis to stop, while the other two fled”adds the ministry which explained these shootings by “increased activity of drug gangs and organized crime” in this border area, and because of “the stubbornness of Jet-Ski passengers”.

The ministry asks in its press release to “do not pay attention to the false information circulating aimed at harming the honorable image of the Army” Algerian.

A complaint soon to be filed for assassination

The body of Bilal Qissi, a 29-year-old trader and father of two children, was found on the beach on the Moroccan side. According to the ministry, “an unidentified male corpse with a gunshot wound” was found on Wednesday and transferred to Tlemcen for an autopsy. The Abdelali Mechouar (or Mchiouer) family, a 40-year-old trader residing in France, father of a five-year-old child, is demanding that his body be returned to them as soon as possible. Another member of the group, Smaïl Snabé, also Franco-Moroccan, was injured, according to Mohamed Qissi quoted by the media, and is detained in Algeria.

France has confirmed the death of a Frenchman of Moroccan origin and “the incarceration of another compatriot in Algeria in an incident involving several of our nationals”.

The public prosecutor’s office in Oujda, a city on which Saïdia depends, has opened an investigation to determine the circumstances “of a violent incident at sea”, a judicial source told the Moroccan agency MAP on Friday. A complaint will also be filed ” Monday or Tuesday “ For “aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, hijacking and failure to assist a person in danger”told Agence France-Presse on Sunday, Mr.^e Hakim Chergui, one of the lawyers for the victims’ family.

Vivid friction

Rabat has not yet spoken officially. But the National Human Rights Council (an official Moroccan constitutional body, independent of the government) has “condemned the use of live ammunition by the Algerian Coast Guard against defenseless citizens, instead of rescuing people lost at sea, which is a serious violation of international standards”according to a statement on Sunday.

“A third young person is still in intensive care in Oujda”, said the CNDH without giving his identity or nationality. The CNDH also indicated that Mr. Snabé “was sentenced to 18 months” prison in Algeria, without giving the reasons.

This case risks exacerbating the sharp friction between Rabat and Algiers, fueled by their antagonism over the issue of the disputed territory of Western Sahara, considered a “non-self-governing territory” by the United Nations (UN) in the absence of a final settlement. The separatists of the Polisario demand a self-determination referendum planned by the UN in 1991 but never organized. Morocco, which controls nearly 80% of the territory, is proposing an autonomy plan under its sovereignty. Their borders have been closed since 1994 and Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021.