Three Algerian drivers lost their lives on November 1st while aboard their trucks, which went up in flames, along the road from Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, to Ouargala in Algeria. Even today it is not clear how these three trucks went up in flames and in what part of the route, which is 3,500 kilometers long and which requires two days of travel, the accident occurred.
Yet two days later the official Algerian news agency “Aps” issued a statement from the presidency of Algiers according to which “three Algerian citizens were cowardly murdered by a barbaric bombing of their trucks” accusing the Moroccan armed forces of having conducted an air raid via a drone and admonishing: “Their murder will not go unpunished”.
The note seems to portend the worst. From 13 November 2020, when the Moroccan armed forces intervened at the Guerguerat border crossing with Mauritania to create a security cordon, and with the recognition of the United States of Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, a diplomatic escalation began and Algeria’s policy towards Morocco with repeated initiatives, starting with the breakdown of diplomatic relations up to the closure of the Maghreb – Europe Gas Pipeline (MEG), which according to local observers could be the prelude to an armed conflict. For the Algerian opposition, these initiatives are aimed at diverting national public opinion from the economic and political crisis that has been affecting the country for years.
Meanwhile, the Moroccan neighbor puts his hands forward and makes it known that he will not be involved in a war with Algeria. This is what a Moroccan source assures to “Formiche.net”. “If Algeria wants war, Morocco does not. Morocco will never be dragged into a spiral of regional violence and destabilization – explains the source – If Algeria wants to drag the region into war, with provocations and threats, Morocco will not follow. Morocco has never targeted and will never target Algerian citizens, regardless of circumstances and provocations “.
At the moment, the Algerian presidency has not specified the exact place where this bombing took place. According to the Algerian specialized website “Menadefense.net”, Algerian truck drivers were allegedly killed in Bir Lahlou, even if the route that truck drivers usually use to go from Nouakchott to Ouargala does not pass through that village. According to the Moroccan source, this area is used exclusively by military vehicles of the armed militias of the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi separatists supported by Algeria who are fighting for the independence of the former Spanish colony.
To date there are many gray areas in this story. After two days of silence, Algeria officially accused the Royal Armed Forces of killing three Algerian truck drivers. The Polisario media spoke of an attack in what they call “liberated territories”, ie the buffer zone east of the Sand Wall. But it could also have happened in one place in Mauritania or Algeria.
A similar thing happened on October 14th when a “terrorist attack” was announced in that region. The Algerian Ministry of Defense has indicated the site of the explosion of the homemade bomb, locating it on the “western borders of the country, in the locality of Deglen, municipality of Beni Boussaid, Wilaya di Tlemcen”.
Furthermore, the images disseminated on social networks about this case question the thesis of the attack by a drone of the Moroccan forces. They show completely charred trucks that could be the work of an accidental fire, of criminal origin or of the explosion of a mine, according to the analysis of the site “Yabiladi”. “An attack by an unmanned aircraft would have pulverized the vehicles and created a crater, the depth of which would have provided information on the power and weight of the missile used in the operation,” it reads.
With this announcement, Algeria accentuates the crisis with Morocco, guilty, according to President Abdelmajid Tebboune, of being the cause of all the country’s problems. The Algerian authorities announced on 13 October that they had foiled a “plot” aimed at undermining the stability of the country. It would be the work of a “terrorist organization (…) that embraces the separatist tendency”, with the complicity “of the Zionist entity and a state in North Africa”, alluding to Morocco.
In addition to Morocco, the communication from the Algerian presidency also touched neighboring Mauritania in passing. A sort of warning addressed to President Mohamed Cheikh Ould El Ghazouani to stop a possible military and security coordination with between Nouakchott and Rabat.

Previous articleHolidays in Italy with children: 12 cities and places to visit as a family
Next articleCanadian Parliament exposes the embarrassments of Pornhub