Runaway prisoners trigger security coordination issue between Algeria and Morocco

Moroccan interior affairs ministry has provided guards of Mkhaznya borders with new weapons after exchanging their submachine guns with Kalashnikovs. Pictures of nine prisoners on the run who were jailed in Knitra between Algeria and Morocco's borders have been published as well, according to reliable sources.

Moroccan security forces have tightened up surveillance on all Knitra’s exits and suburbs especially Maamoura forest following the runaway prisoners who are members of al-Takfir and al-Hijra group.

According to Moroccan security sources, security surveillance is also on eastern borders (borders with Algeria) where check points have been set up along the road to Ouedjda.

 Investigators have not reached any information on the prisoners’ whereabouts while Moroccan authorities issued a warrant claiming that they may have got into Algeria to join the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.  Observers believe that the stringent security measures are meant to save Moroccan tourism as summer is approaching.“Those measures were not adopted to fight smuggling or when Algeria tightened the noise on infiltration of Moroccans to join the training camps of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC),” say observers. 

Earlier, Moroccan security reports said dozens of Moroccans had joined the GSPC and had been recruited as suicide bombers.  On the other hand, questions are raised on how much security coordination is between Algeria and Morocco. Algeria has always been linking the reopening of closed borders with Morocco to efficient security mechanisms for borders control.

 Previously, Algerian foreign affairs minister Mourad Medelsi talked about the necessity of having  general atmosphere to open the borders. Morocco is among the few countries which are still unclear about judicial security cooperation in people’s extraditions.