A double homicide in troubled waters. According to the Moroccan media The360citing concordant sources including a witness to the scene, two Franco-Moroccan tourists Bilal Kissi and Abdelali Mechouer were shot dead by Algerian coast guards in the Algerian maritime space after being lost at sea aboard their jet- skis, near the very popular Moroccan seaside resort of Saidia.
A third tourist, also a Franco-Moroccan, Smaïl Snabé, was arrested by the Algerian authorities and will be presented on Wednesday before an Algerian prosecutor, specifies The360 based on “concordant sources”.
This drama is likely to rekindle sharp regional frictions between Algeria and Morocco, exacerbated by their antagonism over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. However, neither Rabat nor Algiers publicly reacted immediately. Contacted by AFP, the French Embassy in Morocco declined to comment. Moroccan justice announced on Friday the opening of an investigation into “the circumstances of the death”
“We got lost and we were out of gas”
The four young people – three Franco-Moroccans and one Moroccan – were each on a jet-ski. “We got lost but we continued until we found ourselves in Algeria. We knew we were in Algeria because a black Algerian zodiac came towards us, it started to zigzag as if they wanted to overthrow us”, testified Mohamed Kissi, Bilal’s older brother, to the Moroccan site. Al Omk. He said he was picked up by the Moroccan navy, which brought him back to the Saidia marina.
” They [les occupants du zodiac] shot at us. Thank God I wasn’t hit but my brother and my friend, they killed them. They arrested my other friend, he added. We got lost and we were out of gas. »
The body of Abdeli Mechouer, killed alongside Bilal Kissi, is still on the Algerian side, according to Moroccan media. “We buried a brother and we want to recover the body of Abdelali, our cousin,” said a cousin of Bilal Kissi, in a video broadcast by Al Omk. “We want to bury him with dignity so that his mother can have peace of mind,” added the cousin, whose first name was not communicated.
According to him, “these young people had neither drugs nor stole anything, they are in good standing. They had come to spend a family vacation” in Saïdia. They were working in France. “One (of the young dead) left two children, the other a daughter,” he said.
“The ministry’s crisis and support center and the embassies in Morocco and Algeria are in close contact with the families of our fellow citizens” to “give them our support”, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.