Two people, including at least one Frenchman, died while jet skiing between Morocco and Algeria. The Algerian coastguards are implicated.
While traveling by jet ski off the Algerian coast, two people were killed, several Moroccan media announced on Thursday (August 31st). A third person was arrested by the Algerian authorities. The coastguard would have opened fire on the group of tourists according to the same media. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed, this Friday, September 1, the death of at least one Frenchman “in an incident involving several of our nationals”. The Moroccan and Algerian authorities have not yet communicated officially on this event.
Tourists lost at sea between Morocco and Algeria
To Moroccan media Le360, one of the survivors, who managed to reach land, explains that he and the group “lost” at sea around 5:30 p.m.: “We were running out of gas for the jet skis and we were drifting. black, we ended up in Algerian waters.” The four tourists were in an Algerian maritime area on the border with Morocco not far from the city of Saidia, a Moroccan seaside resort very busy in the summer. According to the same witness, two victims are to be deplored: his 29-year-old brother and his 40-year-old friend who died from the shooting. The fourth man in the tour group was reportedly knocked down by an Algerian army canoe before being arrested. According to the “concordant sources” of the media The 360he would have been presented before an Algerian prosecutor on Wednesday 30 August.
Morocco and Algeria have had strained relations for several years. Their border has been closed since 1994 and Algeria has severed all diplomatic relations with Morocco since 2021. “Israel’s recognition in July 2023 of ‘Moroccan sovereignty’ over the disputed territory of Western Sahara has further heightened tensions”, explains West France.