France are investigating the death of a French citizen, whose family is originally from Morocco, in an incident that occurred earlier this week on the border between this country and Algeria. The young man was allegedly shot by the Algerian coast guard when he was sailing with a jet ski, with three other friends, in waters near the city of Saidia, on the border, according to French press reports. Another of them, a Moroccan residing in France, has also died, according to the EFE news agency.
Two other Moroccan citizens with French nationality were also involved in the accident, which remains to be clarified. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported the death of “one of the citizens” and the imprisonment of another compatriot in the country.
“The crisis and support center of the Ministry and our ambassadors in Morocco and Algeria is in direct contact with the families of our citizens, to whom we offer our full support. We have expressed our condolences to them,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The ministry claims to be in direct contact with the Moroccan and Algerian authorities and the incident has been notified to the Prosecutor’s Office for investigation: “It will be up to the courts to clarify the circumstances of this tragedy,” says the ministry, which has not detailed the circumstances of the accident.
The deceased is called Bilal Kissi, he is 28 years old and was born in the French town of Montfermeil, according to information from EFE. His body was recovered by the Royal Moroccan Navy. The other man is 38 years old and also resides in France.
The rest of those involved in the incident returned to Moroccan territory. According to his account, they were shot without warning. They ran out of fuel and, late at night, accidentally entered Moroccan waters.
“We got lost, but we continued until we found ourselves in Algeria. We knew we were there because a black Algerian zodiac came towards us. Then they began to zigzag, as if they wanted to make us overturn,” said the older brother of the deceased. in statements to the Moroccan press, which collects Le Figaro.
The father of the deceased Moroccan man also confirmed this version to EFE. He said that his son was a merchant and lived in France, but did not have French nationality. According to his account, which coincides with that of the witnesses, the group of friends mistakenly entered Algerian territorial waters, where they were shot without warning. “The Algerian authorities opened fire on them. Bilal Kissi had five bullets in his body,” the man said.
This incident further strains relations between Rabat and Algiers, broken in 2021 after the dispute over Western Sahara, a territory occupied for the most part by Morocco, worsened. Although at the moment no country has reacted officially, asked by the local press, the Moroccan government spokesman, Mustapha Baïtas, has limited himself to saying that it is “a matter that falls within the jurisdiction of the judiciary.”
According to the Efe agency, the body of Bilal Kissi was buried Thursday in a cemetery in the eastern Moroccan city of Oujda.
A former colonial power, France maintains strong ties with Algeria, which are also not without tension. The last focus was a few months ago, when Algiers called its ambassador in Paris for consultations after the country welcomed the French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui, arrested in Algiers and who had fled to Tunisia.