Two people, including a French national, died on Tuesday while out on a jet-ski with friends in Morocco. They would have drifted towards Algerian waters, where the occupants of an Algerian zodiac would have shot at them, according to the account of one of them.
Two men, including a French national, died on Tuesday while they were on a jet-ski outing with friends in Morocco. Leaving from the Moroccan coast, they would have drifted towards Algerian waters, where occupants of an Algerian zodiac would have fired on them, according to the account of one of them.
• What happened on Tuesday?
On Tuesday evening, four men set off from Morocco to go jet-skiing near the coastal town of Saidia in the northeast of the country. “Around 5:30 p.m., we got lost. We ran out of gas for the jet skis and we were drifting. In the dark, we found ourselves in Algerian waters,” said one of them, Mohamed Kissi, to the Moroccan media close to the government The 360.
According to his account, a zodiac on which the word “Algeria” was visible approached them and, as they tried to return to the Moroccan shores, the occupants of the boat began to fire on them.
• What is the balance sheet?
If Mohamed Kissi got away with it, at least one of the holidaymakers, a French national, was killed, according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is his brother, Bilal Kissi. According to our information, another man, a Moroccan national, Abdelali Mechouer, was also killed. His body has not been recovered by his family, according to Moroccan media.
Mustafa Mechouer, the father of Abdelali Mechouer, told Reuters he presumed his son died on Tuesday and wanted to bury him. “I call on the Moroccan and Algerian authorities to reach an agreement to bring my son back to be offered a proper funeral and burial,” he said.
The fourth holidaymaker, a French national, was imprisoned in Algeria, announcement Friday the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• How are the countries concerned reacting?
“The crisis and support center of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and our embassies in Morocco and Algeria are in close contact with the families of our fellow citizens, to whom we give our full support. We have expressed our condolences,” said the Quai d’Orsay on Friday.
The ministry added that it is in contact with the Moroccan and Algerian authorities and that the Paris prosecutor’s office has been “notified” of the situation. “It will be up to the courts to shed light on the circumstances of this tragedy,” said the Quai d’Orsay.
Neither Algeria nor Morocco reacted to this affair. Questioned Thursday by the local press, the spokesman for the Moroccan government, Mustapha Baïtas, made no comment, confining himself to replying that it is “a matter which falls within the competence of the judiciary”. According to Moroccan media Al Omkan investigation has been opened by the Moroccan prosecutor’s office into the death of Bilal Kissi.
• What are the relations between Morocco and Algeria?
The case comes in a context of very tense relations between Morocco and Algeria. Their borders have been closed since 1994 and Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021, accusing Rabat of “hostile acts”, a decision “completely unjustified” according to Rabat.
These tensions come in particular from the situation in Western Sahara, a region disputed by Morocco and the Polisario Front, an armed movement which in 1976 proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic there. Algeria supports the Polisario Front.
Israel’s recent recognition of “Moroccan sovereignty” over the territory of Western Sahara has reignited tensions with Algiers, which denounced a “flagrant violation of international law”.