Algeria announces it has arrested three Moroccans on a jet

Algeria announces it has arrested three Moroccans on a jet ski in its territorial waters

From Le Figaro with AFP

Published 2 hours ago, now updated

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The arrest took place in the same area where two jet ski vacationers were killed by Algerian coast guard gunfire last August.

Algeria announced on Wednesday December 13 that it had arrested three Moroccans on Monday who had entered its territorial waters on a jet ski in the same area where two holidaymakers were killed in August by gunfire by the attributed to the Algerian Coast Guard. The three Moroccans were arrested on Monday morning by an Algerian Coast Guard patrol “after entering our territorial waters on board a jet ski about 7 nautical miles off the beach of Marsa Ben Mhidi” on the border with Morocco on the Algerian Mediterranean coast. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense announced in a press release.

The jet ski was intercepted “in an area where there is intense activity by drug trafficking networks, organized crime and illegal immigration,” the ministry said, adding that an investigation was underway. On August 29, a 40-year-old Moroccan holidaymaker living in France and his French-Moroccan cousin were killed by the Algerian coast guard when they got lost on jet skis in the same sector, according to a survivor.

“A refusal to comply”

The Algerian Ministry of Defense then reported “shots” fired after “an acoustic warning” from a coast guard unit, as well as “warning shots” in response to “a refusal to comply” by Moroccans on jet skis crossing the Algerian river have sea borders.

Algiers broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat in August 2021, condemning a series of “hostile actions” by its neighbor, particularly related to the disputed territory of Western Sahara and normalization with Israel.

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