Three Algerian nationals killed in bombing in Western Sahara
View of a Moroccan military post on the border between Morocco and Mauritania, November 23, 2020. Fadel SENNA AFP / Archivos
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
It is the Algerian authorities who are announcing it today, accusing Morocco of being at the origin of this bombardment.
No official reaction from Rabat for the moment.
This event comes as relations between the two neighbors have already grown considerably strained in recent months.
Advertising
Read more
According to a statement from the Algerian presidency, its three nationals were killed Monday when their truck was bombed, which was traveling between the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott and Ouargla, in the Algerian Sahara.
Without further details.
According to the Algerian site Ména Défense, the facts allegedly took place in Bir Lahlou, a locality in Western Sahara, on the Moroccan side, near the border with Mauritania.
The Mauritanian army claims that the attack did not occur on its soil.
A fever spurt lasting several months
Algiers directly accuses Morocco and affirms that "
these assassinations will not go unpunished
".
No official reaction, for the moment, from the Moroccan authorities.
Three weeks ago, the Algerian authorities claimed that a border guard had been killed near the border with Morocco in the explosion of a homemade bomb as a patrol passed.
These events take place against a backdrop of
increased tensions
between the two neighbors in recent months.
Algeria
severed diplomatic relations
with Rabat at the end of August.
The crisis erupted shortly after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel in exchange for the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara by the United States.
This territory is considered non-autonomous by the UN, is claimed by Morocco which controls 80% of it, and the separatists of the Polisario Front are asking for a self-determination referendum.
► Listen again:
Algeria-Morocco: the enemy brothers of the Maghreb?
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Morocco
Algeria
Western Sahara