The Algerian journalist, exiled in France, Abdou Semmar, protested against the fake news peddled by the Algerian media and the Polisario on an alleged “Moroccan bombardment” which would have killed at least 2 Algerian civilians.
The fake news concerning the alleged murder of at least 2 Algerian truckers who would have entered the Sahara according to certain versions, and who would have traveled along a road linking Tindouf in Algeria to Zouerat in the north of Mauritania, according to other versions, provoked the anger of the Algerian journalist who denounced a “manipulation” aimed at stoking the fire and the war between Morocco and Algeria.
While relations between the two neighbors are tense due to numerous provocations on the Algerian side in recent years (false accusations, interference in sovereign decisions, rupture of diplomatic relations, untimely decisions and stormy statements by Algerian officials, etc.), tensions remain palpable between the two capitals.
In this context, members of the Polisario seek to provoke escalation by attributing attacks against Algerians to Morocco. In 2021, the Algerian power had already accused Morocco of similar facts without providing any proof, but this time it did not react to false information whose source goes to the Sahrawis of the Polisario.
“In 48 hours we came close to disaster. Calls for war, I say calls for war, have been launched by a group of supposed journalists, a group of Algerian intellectuals”, the journalist protested in a video on Youtube.
“Let’s stop making Algerians believe that Morocco is killing our compatriots and that war is easy. Of course, those who will wage war are not the journalists from the salons of Algiers, the band of Menadéfense, Soir d’Algérie and El Watan. They are warm in Algiers at the pines club or in the big cities of the north eating grilled meats”, he denounced, pointing out that it is the children of the people, of the poor who will be used as cannon fodder in the event of a military escalation.
Calling these fake news launchers“adventurers”and “sick people who sow discord between the two countries”the Algerian journalist called on the two peoples not to fall into the trap because these parties “absolutely want to fan the fire between the two peoples and the two countries”.
The journalist attacked the lack of professionalism and journalistic ethics of the authors of these fake news who quoted Mauritanian and Polisario observers without the information being verified, before retracting 48 hours later with laconic apologies that it was false information after verification.
“They amplified this information and stoked the fire (…) until Algerian journalists called for revenge”explained the Algerian journalist who claimed to have seen the reactions of several of his colleagues in Algeria who called for war in Morocco on the basis of false information. “Shame on you, you think war is child’s play?” », he said, addressing those parties who are trying to “make believe that a military confrontation has become necessary”.
Regarding the Polisario at the source of this affair, the Algerian journalist did not fail to express his anger by denouncing that a separatist group was allowed to have a gendarmerie and press organs, operating from Algerian territory. .
“A Sahrawi gendarmerie? I have never heard of such a thing. Western Sahara doesn’t even exist yet and it has a gendarmerie, a press, a news agency, a state (in Algeria). I have never seen that “, he launched incredulously. “What is this Western Sahara gendarmerie again? that does not make any sense “, he added.
Recounting the events that took place during the weekend of January 28 and 29, after the articles had been deleted by numerous Algerian and Polisario sites, Abdou Semmar denounced that the source cited is a “official source of the polisario” and wondered: “Since when are Sahrawi sources credible? “.
” The + Arab Republic of Western Sahara (rasd) + which is the political emanation of the polisario front is not recognized by the majority of the components of the international community, only the African Union recognizes the sard as being an African state, all the other international institutions including the UN and its various ramifications do not recognize this republic of Western Sahara and do not give it any credibility”, he recalled.