Algeria’s national police have claimed to have arrested 61 Moroccan nationals for “planning acts of sabotage.”
Algerian state media and outlets affiliated with the regime reported over the weekend that the arrested Moroccan nationals sought to threaten public security and order, alleging that preliminary investigations showed the suspects were “extremely dangerous.”
The Algerian regime claimed the arrests took place in early October, with the national police “thwarting this criminal plan and apprehending 61 Moroccans, including a former member of the Moroccan military.”
A statement by the Algerian police alleged that the Moroccan nationals entered the country “illegally through Tunisia,” using “steep mountain trails and isolated forest passages in the El Kala area, bordering Tunisia, before traveling by land to Oran to prepare to carry out their sabotage plans.”
It further claimed that security officers seized Moroccan passports and considerable cash in both Moroccan dirhams and euros during the arrests.
This is not the first time Algeria has claimed to have arrested Moroccans over charges of “sabotage” or other ambiguous, politically charged crimes.
In July this year, Algerian police claimed to have arrested 23 people in Oran, including 18 Moroccan nationals, in what authorities in the country described as the dismantling of an “organized criminal network” involved in irregular maritime migration.
Months before the July arrests, Algeria announced in May the arrest of 77 people, including 67 Moroccans, whom police in the city of Oran described as involved in clandestine migration schemes.
In recent years, the regime has also killed several Moroccans it had accused of drug trafficking or threatening Algerian security.
In a controversial 2023 incident, Algerian coast guards killed two Moroccan tourists and detained at least one other on loose charges of trespassing on Algerian territory.
The victims were unarmed civilians on holiday. Due to bad weather, their jet skis accidentally drifted into Algerian waters.
The regime’s actions come as Morocco-Algeria relations continue to experience a deepening crisis of shared mistrust and divergent regional ambitions. Algeria unilaterally cut ties with Morocco in 2021, falsely accusing Rabat of causing devastating wildfires that had been triggered by the summer heatwaves in a number of Algerian provinces.
