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Rabat – The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Friday the death of a French national and the incarceration of another in Algeria in an incident involving several French citizens, AFP reported.
While the ministry refrained from revealing specific details regarding the incident, multiple reports suggest that it involves the tragic killing of two French-Moroccan nationals by Algerian coastguards in the waters near Saidia.
According to these reports, a group of French-Moroccan men were on a jet-ski excursion in Saidia beach on Tuesday when they became disoriented and inadvertently strayed into Algerian waters. It was in this context that Algerian authorities allegedly opened fire at the individuals, resulting in the tragic death of two of them.
In an official statement, the French ministry announced that its Crisis and Support Center, in collaboration with its embassies in Morocco and Algeria, is in close contact with the affected family while actively engaged in providing them with support.
Moroccan news outlet Le360, citing a “reliable source,” identified the deceased individuals as Bilal Kessi and Abdelali Mashwir, while a survivor, Ismail Snabi, was apprehended by Algerian authorities.
Read also: Jet Ski Tragedy: Victim’s Brother Accuses Algerian Coast Guards of Premeditated Murder
Snabi appeared before the Algerian public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday and was subsequently placed in custody for seven days at a police station in Borsai, a municipality in the city of Tlemcen.
The incident has ignited widespread outrage among Moroccans. This sentiment intensified following the circulation of a video showing the lifeless body of one of the victims, which was discovered by a Moroccan fisherman in the waters off the Saidia Gulf.
The body was promptly recovered by Moroccan authorities while the body of the second victim reportedly remained stranded on the Algerian coastline.
The case has the potential to reignite longstanding regional tensions between Algeria and Morocco, further complicating the two nations’ already strained relations.
As of now, neither Rabat nor Algiers has issued any public statements concerning the incident.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Moroccan government Spokesperson Mustapha Baitas was asked about the government’s planned response to the incident, to which he said that the case “falls under the jurisdiction of the judicial authority.”
