2023-05-01 13:35:47
The Moroccan embassy in Ouagadougou is coordinating with all the competent authorities regarding the case of the two Moroccan cyclists who have been missing for several days on the border between Burkina Faso and Niger, a Moroccan diplomatic source said.
The Moroccan Embassy in Ouagadougou told MAP that tireless efforts are being made by all the services of the Kingdom’s representation in close coordination with the competent Burkinabe authorities to search for the two cyclists presumed missing at the border between Burkina Faso and Niger.
The aim is to determine their whereabouts or ascertain from reliable sources if they had left this West African country, it is added.
The two cyclists, Abderrahmane Serhani and Driss Fatihi, have not heard from them since entering Burkina Faso from Côte d’Ivoire and heading for the border to Niger.
One of the two cyclists had posted a video on his Facebook page on March 29, in which he claimed to be heading towards Burkina Faso, whose north-eastern parts have been experiencing a spiral of violence since 2015 attributed to armed terrorist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization.
The Association of Tourist Cyclists of Souss-Massa had launched an appeal on social networks concerning the two missing cyclists.
Moroccan cyclists Abderrahmane Serhani, a 65-year-old retired professor of Islamic education, and Driss Fatihi (a shopkeeper, 37) left Morocco on January 19. They crossed the passage of El Guerguarat in the South of the Kingdom with their two bicycles towards Mauritania, and from there towards other African countries.
It should be noted that the Moroccan Embassy in Burkina is in permanent contact with the family members of the cyclists and has made available to them and their relatives the following hotline number: +22606418080.
It should also be noted that a cyclist, Youssef Bettaoui, presenting himself as a friend of the two missing cyclists, went on Tuesday, April 25, to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Burkina to seek advice about his adventure in Africa and recognized the efforts made by all the embassies of the Kingdom in the Sahel region and West Africa, including that of Ouagadougou, to elucidate the fate of the two Moroccan cyclists. The voluntarist initiative of this hiker was highly appreciated by the officials of the embassy who strongly recommended to him, in the current circumstances, to postpone the continuation of his journey which was to lead him to Niger, Chad and Sudan.
As a reminder, the violence in Burkina Faso has killed more than 10,000 people – civilians and soldiers – according to NGOs, and almost two million internally displaced persons (IDPs).
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