Algeria curtails its aid to poor countries because of oil crisis

The fallout stemming from the significant decline in oil prices is continuing to weigh heavily on the functioning of the Algerian Government, after the austerity measures taken to scale down some infrastructural projects and to freeze recruitment in the public sector service in 2015, this comes now the turn to reduce Algeria’s financial assistance to friendly poor countries in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

To this effect, President Abdellaziz Bouteflika has given instructions to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and finance, to reduce the value of the annual financial aid granted by Algeria to some friendly African countries experiencing economic difficulties.

President Bouteflika informed both Ramtane Lamamra, and Mohamed Djellab, respectively foreign and finance ministers, about such a move during a restricted cabinet meeting last Wednesday, according to the Anatolia news agency which quoted reliable sources as saying that the States concerned are Mauritania,  Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, either neighbouring countries of Algeria, or belonging to the Sahel region which shelters the poorest countries in the world, in addition to other underdeveloped African countries.

According to the source, the financial package granted to these States as part of Algeria’s annual external aid program reached 80 million dollars, and will now be reduced to less than a half of that amount, in a bid to lessen the negative fallout from declining oil prices on the national Public Treasury.

With the exception of the aid for military and security training programs, grants to study in universities and colleges, specialized, and Algerian aid granted Algeria a year for 14 African countries, eco-friendly, which came in the context of the implementation of the commitments of the State towards support for the development of Africa.

Algeria announced last year its decision to scrap the debt of 14 African States, worth nearly one billion dollars. These countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, the Seychelles and Tanzania.

The greatest beneficiary of this salutary Algerian decision was Mauritania whose foreign debt was estimated at 250 million dollars.

Foreign aid is as a matter of fact, a tool of diplomacy that is geared for securing a prominent role by the countries concerned on the international scene, but what’s the point for Algeria to provide aid to some countries resolutely pitted against regional trends?

In this regard, Professor of political science at Algiers University, Ahmed Adimi, said in a statement to “Echorouk” that the Government has not improved its foreign aid schedule to support its agenda on issues of concern to the country, stressing: “we don’t know the conditions for the granting of such foreign aid”, and asked “is this external assistance granted through a sovereign decision, or is it under pressure and injunctions from the world’s great powers”?