Algeria arrests 61 Moroccan citizens on suspicion of planning sabotage activities

China News Service, Beijing, October 12. According to the Algerian News Agency, the Algerian National Police issued a statement on the 11th local time saying that the Algerian police arrested 61 Moroccan citizens on suspicion of planning sabotage activities that endanger Algeria’s national security and public order.

According to the Algerian media TSA, a statement from the Algerian National Police Directorate said that the police carried out an arrest in the country's northwest city of Oran in early October. Afghanistan said the arrested persons belonged to a Moroccan transnational criminal organization operating in Afghanistan, including a former Moroccan soldier. Preliminary investigation showed that members of the organization were suspected of planning sabotage activities.

According to Algerian national television, after arriving in Tunisia by plane, these individuals illegally entered Algeria through mountain trails and remote forest areas in the northeastern Algerian Taf province bordering Tunisia, and then traveled by land to Oran to prepare for sabotage activities.

The TSA reported that the persons involved have been handed over to Oran prosecutors.

Relations between Algeria and Morocco have long been tense, and the land border between the two countries has been closed since 1994. In 2021, Afghanistan announced that it would sever diplomatic relations with Morocco. The two sides have long been at odds over the issue of Western Sahara.

As of now, Morocco has not publicly responded to this matter.