Moroccan jet skiers’ ‘refusal to comply’ led to shooting: Algiers

CAIRO - Algeria on Sunday said its security forces had opened fire last week after

a group of jet skiers from Morocco ignored warning shots and refused to comply with orders to stop.

The incident left two dead.

The incident took place last Tuesday after five men strayed into Algerian waters on jet skis near the Moroccan coastal resort of Saidia on Algeria’s border, according to Mr Mohamed Kissi who said he survived the shooting.

Algeria’s Defence Ministry released its version of events in a statement on Sunday.

“During a security patrol inside our territorial waters, a coastguard unit intercepted on Tuesday at 7.47pm (2.47am Singapore time) three jet skis that clandestinely entered our territorial waters,” a ministry press release said.

“After issuing an audible warning and ordering them to stop several times, the suspects refused to comply and fled,” it added of Tuesday’s incident.

The ministry said that after several warning rounds, “shots were fired, forcing one of the jet skis to stop, and the other two fled”.

It added that the shootings happened “because of increased activity by drug-trafficking gangs and organised crime” in the border zone, and because of “the obstinacy of those on the jet skis”.

Mr Kissi, speaking in a video published by Morocco’s le360 news site, said the group of friends had been approached after dark by an Algerian government vessel.

He said he heard the boat firing on the group and said his brother Bilal, 29, and another man, Mr Abdelali Mchiouer, 40, were both shot dead.

Another member of their group, Smail Snabi, was detained by the Algerian authorities, Mr Kissi added.

The border between Algeria and Morocco has been closed since 1994 and the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since Algiers cut ties with Rabat in 2021.

Mr Kissi disputed the Algerian account.

“I did not hear any warning shots. I only heard gun shots directly that killed my brother Bilal,” he told Reuters on Sunday.

He said Mr Mchiouer was also shot dead. Mr Mchiouer’s father said they are still waiting for his body to be released to observe a proper burial for him.

The Moroccan authorities said they could not comment on the case, calling it a judicial matter. The Moroccan prosecutor said it was investigating the “violent incident”.

Mr Mohamed and Mr Bilal Kissi, along with Snabi who is presumed to have been arrested, each hold dual Moroccan and French nationality, local media reported.

Morocco’s state-run National Human Rights Council (CNDH) condemned the use of live fire by the Algerian coastguard against “defenceless citizens, instead of helping people lost at sea”.

It said this was “a grave violation of international norms”.

The CNDH also said that a third person was still in intensive care in Oujda, without naming him.

It said Snabi had been “sentenced to 18 months” in prison in Algeria.

France’s Foreign Ministry said it had learnt of the death of one of its nationals and the detention of another in Algeria, and was in touch with the families and with the authorities in Morocco and Algeria.

Mr Bilal Kissi's body was found by Moroccan fishermen, and he was buried near the eastern Moroccan city of Oujda on Wednesday, his brother said.

The families of the two dead men are to launch a legal action in France, their lawyers announced on Sunday.

Mr Hakim Chergui, who is acting for the families of the victims, said the legal action would be submitted on Monday or Tuesday.

They are accusing the Algerian authorities of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, the hijacking of a vessel and failure to assist a person in danger. REUTERS, AFP