Algeria on Sunday denied the shooting on a group of Moroccans on the border with Algeria near the city of Oujda. “Moroccan civilians threw stones at the Algerian border guards, who responded with two warning shots in the air without targeting anybody, and I confirm there were no injuries,” Algerian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdelaziz Benali Cherif was quoted as saying by local TSA news web. “These kind of incidents are common,” he added. The Moroccan government said on Saturday that Algerian forces fired on a group of Moroccans on the border, seriously injuring one citizen in the face. Morocco has summoned the Algerian ambassador in Rabat for explanations over the incident. “The Moroccan authorities fabricated this incident,” the spokesman said. The two countries have tense relations and the borders have been closed since 1994. The lasting diplomatic coldness between Algiers and Rabat is mostly provoked by the disagreement between the two countries over the issue of the Western Sahara. Algiers supports self-determination for the Sahrawi people, while Rabat insists that the Western Sahara is part of Moroccan territories.
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