Algiers will “review” its relations with Morocco, accused of being involved in the fires

Published on : 08/18/2021 – 9:50 PM

Algeria has decided to “review” its relations with Morocco, which it accuses of being involved in the deadly fires which have ravaged the north of the country. The announcement was made in a statement from the Algerian presidency published on Wednesday August 18, following an extraordinary meeting of the Algerian High Security Council, chaired by the head of state, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

“The incessant hostile acts perpetrated by Morocco against Algeria have necessitated the revision of relations between the two countries and the intensification of security controls at the western borders,” the statement stated, without further clarification.

This decision was taken during an extraordinary meeting of the Algerian High Security Council devoted to the assessment of the situation after the gigantic forest fires which killed at least 90 people in the north of the country.

President Tebboune had said earlier that most of the fires were of “criminal” origin.

Multiple challenges

Algerian leaders accused a Paris-based Kabyle independence organization of being involved in the fires and in the lynching of a man wrongly accused of pyromania in Kabylia in the northeast of the country, the region most affected by the fires.

They also questioned the Islamo-conservative Rachad movement established in London.

These two movements, pet peeves of power, are illegal in Algeria, where they were classified as “terrorist organizations” on May 18th.

With AFP