Two French-Moroccan holidaymakers are killed after being shot by an Algerian coastguard patrol
Hours of tension in the Moroccan town of Bni Drar, bordering Algeria, following the shooting dead of two young French-Moroccan men enjoying a jet ski excursion.
The funeral and burial of one of the deceased, Bilal Kissi, a 29-year-old father of two young daughters, was held at the main mosque in the town on Thursday 31 August. The ceremony was attended by dozens of family and friends, still shocked by the tragic death of the young men.
The remains of the other victim, Abdelali Mechouer, are still in Algeria, despite having been claimed by his relatives and the Moroccan authorities.
The tragic events that resulted in the death of the two young men took place on the night of Tuesday, 19 August, near the beach of Saidia.
According to one of the two survivors, Mohamed Kissi, brother of one of the victims, "we took our jet skis and left the marina in the direction of Cap de l'eau. We turned off at Sid El Bachir, where we had eaten fish, before turning back".
Kissi, a French-Moroccan family from the city of Oujda, explained that "at around 17:30 we got lost. We ran out of petrol for the jet skis and drifted. In the dark, we found ourselves in Algerian waters".
At that moment, an Algerian coastguard patrol in a Zodiac boat, clearly marked with the word Algeria, approached the holidaymakers. According to Mohamed Kissi, his younger brother Bilal, who was on another jet ski, exchanged a few brief words with the Algerian soldiers and gestured with his arm, pointing west towards Saidia.
After noticing that they had deviated from their route, the four young men tried to manoeuvre their way back into Moroccan territorial waters. At that moment, according to Kissi's testimony, "bullets started raining down". The Algerian soldiers reportedly opened fire, mortally wounding Bilal Kissi and his friend Abdelali Mechouer, 40.
The fourth member of the group, Smaïl Snabé, was hit by the Algerian guards' zodiac and fell into the water. According to the daily Hespress, he was shot and wounded, but managed to escape death. He was arrested and appeared the next day before an Algerian prosecutor, who remanded him in custody for seven days at a police station in Port Say. His family claims not to have heard from him since.
Mohamed Kissi, the survivor, goes on to say that he heard a body fall into the water, probably that of his brother, and that he tried to swim away. In his flight, he came across a patrol of the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie, which had gone out in search of the four missing youths.
After being informed of the facts, the Moroccan guards tried to locate the bodies of the two deceased youths, but only found an unmanned jet ski with traces of blood on it.
The body of the young Bilal Kissi was swept away by the current and recovered on the beach of Saidia a few hours later, after being found by a Moroccan fisherman.
In his testimony to Le360, Mohamed Kissi affirms that the Algerian soldiers were aware that they were unarmed civilians: "yes, they saw that we were unarmed, my little brother spoke to them and they still fired".
Various reports in the Moroccan media indicate that some of the bodies had up to seven bullet wounds, which confirms that the Algerian guards shot to kill even though they knew that the young men were defenceless.
The events are extremely serious and threaten to further deteriorate relations between Morocco and Algeria. In recent days, social networks have been flooded with angry messages from Moroccan citizens, who do not understand why a border patrol would open fire on unarmed young people who have strayed.
Moreover, the events could trigger a major diplomatic conflict, as the two young men shot by the Algerian guards were also French nationals, and Macron's government is expected to react to the Algerian authorities. A reaction that will undoubtedly be closely scrutinised by the Moroccan government.
