2023-09-01 01:20:00
“Lost at the border with a jet ski” Two vacationers shot dead by the Algerian coast guard
09/01/2023, 03:20 am
Four tourists make a wrong turn on jet skis outside a popular Moroccan holiday resort, according to one of them. Two of his companions from France pay for the tour with their lives.
According to reports in the Moroccan media, two vacationers riding jet skis were shot dead by the Algerian coast guard as they apparently crossed the sea border between the two North African Mediterranean countries. Two Frenchmen, Bilal Kissi and Abdelali Merhouer, who also held French and Moroccan passports, have come under fire after making a wrong turn outside the northern Moroccan tourist resort of Saidia on the Algerian border, news website Le360 reported, citing one witnesses.
A third French-Moroccan tourist named Smaïl Snabé was arrested by the Algerian coast guard. He was brought before the prosecutor on Wednesday, Le360 reported, citing “corresponding sources”.
According to Le360, the group consisted of four men on Tuesday. All were therefore on jet skis. “We were lost,” Moroccan website Al Omk quoted Bilal Kissi’s brother Mohamed Kissi as saying. Accordingly, he and his companions had run out of fuel. “We knew we were in Algeria because a black Algerian rubber dinghy was coming towards us” and the people on board “shot at us,” he said.
Reportedly hit by five bullets
Luckily he wasn’t hit himself. His brother and friend, however, were killed after being hit by “five bullets”. He himself was finally picked up by the Moroccan Navy and brought back to the port of Saidia.
When asked about the alleged shots at the jet ski drivers, Moroccan government spokesman Mustapha Baitas declined to comment. This is “a matter for the judiciary,” he said. Algeria initially did not comment on the incident.
Strained relations between neighboring countries
Relations between Algeria and Morocco have been strained for decades. One of the issues at stake is the status of Western Sahara. While Morocco regards the oil-rich Western Sahara as part of its national territory, the Polisario Front, which is active in Western Sahara, is campaigning for independence with the support of Algeria.
The border between the two North African countries has been closed since 1994. Algiers severed ties with Rabat in 2021 after accusing the neighboring country of “hostile acts” – an accusation Morocco says is “completely unjustified”.
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