The case of the Algerian-Moroccan border area Figuig has just seen new developments. The habitats in this area demonstrated last Thursday.
Following the latest events at the level of farms located in the border area of El Figuig, Moroccan side and El Arja, Algerian side (read our article of March 16), the inhabitants of the Moroccan side of the border have decided to start a protest movement.
Urged to leave the farms at El Arja (deadline expired on March 18) in Algerian territory, the inhabitants of the Moroccan city of Figuig, in the south-east of the country, who organized a demonstration last Thursday.
According to El Watan daily reported on Sunday, Moroccan security forces prevented protesters from marching on El Arja. Same thing on the Algerian side, where border guards had set up several camps and closed all access to Algerian territory.
Algeria’s reaction
The approach on the Algerian side intervened, according to what the official APS agency reported, as part of “the strengthening of the efforts of the Algerian state in securing its border strip, following failures in the exploitation of Algerian plots of land by Moroccan citizens in Ouahat Laaroda (or El Arja) ”.
This is how the inhabitants of Figuig observed, last Thursday, a “day of mourning” to protest against an “expropriation” of land which, according to them, “is Moroccan”, according to what the same newspaper reported. .
Yet the border line between Algeria and Morocco that was signed by the two countries in 1972 is clear. As a reminder, the Algerian authorities have allowed, since 1990, about forty Moroccan farmers to operate the El Arja oasis under Beni Ouenif, in the wilaya of Bechar.
Omdh: “private property” takes precedence over “state sovereignty”.
This situation lasted until the last few years when drug and arms trafficking networks proliferated in this area. And this is what prompted the Algerian authorities to ask Moroccan farmers to evacuate their agricultural equipment before March 18, 2021.
During the demonstration last Thursday, the farmers concerned by this affair accused the Moroccan government of having allowed “the killing” of their city, while denouncing “unemployment” and “the absence of the conditions for a decent life ”in Figuig.
For their part, the Moroccan authorities through the president of the Moroccan Observatory for Human Rights (Omdh) who announced that he intends to bring the case before Algerian justice, but also international, considering that “the private property ”takes precedence over“ state sovereignty ”.
