Holidaymakers on jetskis reportedly shot after entering Algerian waters
Algerian authorities are believed to have shot dead at least one Moroccan tourist after a group of holidaymakers accidentally strayed into Algerian waters on jetskis, one of the survivors told Moroccan media.
Mohamed Kissi said that the group of friends on jetskis had got lost off the coast and strayed into Algerian waters when his brother, Bilal Kissi, was shot dead; another man, Abdelali Merchouer, was missing, presumed dead. The men were reported to have FrenchMoroccan dual nationality.
Morocco has opened an investigation into the incident, local media reported.
The group came under fire after taking a wrong turn off the beach resort of Saïdia on Morocco’s north-east tip on Tuesday, the Moroccan news website Le360 reported. The men had crossed the maritime border between Morocco and Algeria.
A fourth man, Smail Snabe, also French-Moroccan, was arrested by the Algerian coastguard and appeared before a prosecutor on Wednesday, Le360 said.
“We got lost but we kept going until we found ourselves in Algeria,” Kissi told the Moroccan website Al Omk. “We knew we were in Algeria because a black Algerian dinghy came towards us [and those onboard] fired at us,” he said.
“Thank God I wasn’t hit, but they killed my brother and my friend. They arrested my other friend,” he added. “Five bullets hit my brother and my friend. My other friend was hit by a bullet.”
“We got lost and we were out of fuel,” he said, adding that he was picked up by the Moroccan navy. who took him back to the Saïdia marina.
Bilal Kissi, 29, had two young daughters, Moroccan media reported. He was buried in Morocco on Thursday.
In Morocco, the prosecutor’s office began investigating the death of one of the young men “after the discovery of his body on the beach at Saïdia”, the Al Omk website reported.
Merchouer’s father, Mustafa, told Reuters he believed his son was dead and wanted to bury him. “I appeal to Moroccan and Algerian authorities to reach an agreement to bring my son back to me to observe a proper funeral and burial for him,” he said.
The French foreign ministry reported only one death, without providing the circumstances, saying another of its citizens was jailed in “an incident involving several of our nationals”.
Paris did not release the identity of the person it said had been killed. The French foreign ministry said its “crisis support centre and our embassies in Morocco and Algeria are in close contact with our fellow citizens’ families, to whom we are offering every support”.
The incident came against a backdrop of increased tensions between Algeria and Morocco, exacerbated by their antagonism over the long-running dispute over the territory of Western Sahara.
The border between the north African nations has been closed since 1994 and Algiers severed ties with Rabat in 2021 after accusing its neighbour of “hostile acts”, an accusation Morocco called “completely unjustified”.
When asked about the reported shooting of the jetskiers on Thursday, a Moroccan government spokesperson, Mustapha Baitas, declined to comment, saying only that it was “a matter for the judiciary”.
There was no immediate comment from the Algerian side.