Troubled waters
There are many factors that may have influenced the tragedy that has unfolded in Mediterranean waters with the death of two French-Moroccan men, Bilal Kissi and Abdelali Mechouar, shot by Algerian coastguards, the arrest of Ismael Snabe. A fourth young man, Mohamed Kissi, brother of one of the dead, managed to escape.
The result is a mortal blow to several Franco-Moroccan families and dangerously heightens tensions between the two North African neighbours because of the circumstances known from Mohamed Kissi's testimony on how the events took place. An investigation has been opened, but the outcry and indignation is growing in the Moroccan town of Saidia over the machine-gunning of tourists on board jet skis who mistakenly entered Algerian waters at night. According to the witness, there was no warning, no alert, no shots in the air, the Algerian coastguard fired at them. The body of his brother, floating near the shore of Saidia, was found by a fisherman. The other body is found in a village on the Algerian coast. His family is claiming the body, but the breaking off of diplomatic relations decreed by the Algerian government in August 2021 may make the process more difficult.
The border between the two countries has been closed since 1994. As for the other survivor, Ismael Snabe, also a French national, local Algerian media report that he was brought before the Algerian public prosecutor's office on Wednesday, who ordered him to be remanded in custody for seven days at a police station in Borsai.
It is necessary to compile the known facts because in Spain, strangely enough, this tragic event has not been covered by television and only a few media outlets have reported it. On too many occasions, the creation of an aggressive verbal climate against a neighbour by political leaders and the media attached to those in power, as has been the case in Algeria for several years now, which has ignored the continuous offers of dialogue from the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, to restore relations and reduce tension, has these consequences.
When, unfortunately, deaths occur, the situation becomes more complicated. The dispute over the Sahara, where several Polisario Front leaders were killed by a Moroccan drone on Friday, and the struggle for hegemony in the region, condition relations between Rabat and Algiers, which are complicated by instability in the Sahel and Algeria's moves with its Russian ally Wagner and Iran. Both governments have increased their military budgets and arms procurement.
Military coups in several African countries cause deep concern because of Russia's backing and its anti-French and anti-European manifestations. Europeans are concerned, but the situation is long overdue for much greater attention.