Several days after the tragedy, Algeria gives its version of the facts, after the death of two Moroccan vacationers lost in a jet-ski. “Summons shots” were fired on Tuesday by the Algerian coastguard then “shots fired” in the face of “a refusal to comply” by tourists, the Algerian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday. According to Moroccan media and lawyers who said they wanted to file a complaint in France, Bilal Kissi, 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, on the border with Algeria, aboard jet skis, according to the testimony of the older brother of Bilal Kissi, 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, three jet skis that had crossed our territorial waters clandestinely,” the Algerian ministry said in a statement. “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.
A case that risks exacerbating tensions between Rabat and Algiers
After several “warning shots”, “shots were fired forcing one of the jet skis to stop, while the other two fled”, added the ministry. The ministry explained these shootings by “increased activity of drug trafficking gangs and organized crime” in this border area, and because of “the obstinacy of the passengers of the jet skis”. The ministry asked in its official statement not to pay attention to the false information which circulates aiming at harming the honorable image of the Algerian Army.
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 Saidia depends, has opened an investigation to determine the circumstances “of a violent incident at sea”.
This case risks exacerbating the sharp friction between Rabat and Algiers, fueled by their antagonism over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, considered a “non-self-governing territory” by the UN in the absence of a final settlement.