Moroccan Group Urges Action on 1975 Disappearances in Algeria Ahead of UN Meeting

In the memorandum of claims presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, as well as to the ministerial delegation in charge of human rights, the AMVEEA mentions the disappearance of three Moroccans during the expulsion of Moroccans from Algeria in 1975. They are Ammar Ould Mimoun Ezzawi, born in 1929 in Aïn Kihal, in the wilaya of Témouchent in Algeria, who was arrested and disappeared from his home in September 1975 and Hassna Khallouk, born on January 15, 1962 in Meknes, Morocco, who was a minor student when the Algerian authorities arrested her on November 14, 1975 near the Moroccan-Algerian border. The third is named Ahmed Ben Abdallah. Born in 1958 in Témouchent, Algeria, he disappeared in March 1978 after being arrested by the Algerian gendarmerie at the border.

In its letter, the Association explains that this file had already been presented to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances in Geneva, and that the group had addressed a letter to the Algerian state on March 13, 2018, after its meeting in Brussels during the 114th session held from February 5 to 9, 2018. But the Algerian authorities have not provided any clarification on this matter to date, while the families of the disappeared "still live in expectation, hoping to discover the fate of their children, whether they are alive or have lost their lives," it laments.

The wish of the AMVEEA is that this subject "be addressed during the next meetings of the Moroccan delegation with the international committee, in order to include the final observations of the committee on this issue in official recommendations requiring Algeria to reveal the fate of the disappeared".