Algerian Navy Kills Two Franco-Moroccan Jet Skiers in Disputed Border Incident

"During a security and control patrol in our territorial waters, a Coast Guard unit, belonging to the West Maritime Facade/2nd RM, intercepted, on the evening of Tuesday, August 29, 2023 at 7:47 p.m., three (03) jet skis that had illegally crossed our territorial waters. After issuing a sound warning and repeatedly summoning them to stop, the suspects refused to comply and fled, performing dangerous maneuvers," notes the Algerian Ministry of National Defense in a statement released Sunday by the official agency APS. According to Algiers’ explanations, this border maritime region records increased activity of drug trafficking gangs and organized crime.

Relying on this reality, "and faced with the obstinacy of the passengers of the said jet skis, the Coast Guard personnel proceeded to warning shots. After several attempts, gunshots were fired, forcing one of the jet skis to stop, while the other two fled," the ministry adds, specifying that an unidentified male corpse with a gunshot wound was recovered on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. and then transferred to the morgue of the Marsa Ben M’hidi polyclinic in Tlemcen.

In Morocco, these explanations are far from convincing. In a statement, the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) condemned "the use of live ammunition by the Algerian coast guards, against defenseless citizens, instead of taking the initiative, as is done, to rescue and assist lost persons at sea." The testimony of the survivor Mohamed Kissi, brother of the victim Bilal, contradicts Algiers’ version. "They (the Algerian coast guards) knew perfectly well that they were dealing with lost vacationers and yet they opened fire," he accused in an interview with the media Le360.

They were four young vacationers - three Franco-Moroccans and one Moroccan - each on a jet ski on the Moroccan coast on August 29. "We got lost, but we kept going until we found ourselves in Algeria. We knew we were in Algeria because a black Algerian zodiac came towards us, it started zigzagging as if they wanted to run us over. [...] They (the occupants of the zodiac) shot at us. Thank God, I wasn’t hit but my brother and my friend, they killed them. They stopped my other friend," Mohamed recounted.