Algeria, Morocco are the Largest Importers of Arms in Africa

Stockholm Institute of World Peace Research shows in its latest report, that the two neighbouring countries, Algeria and Morocco, are the largest importer of arms in Africa, during the five-years (2011- 2015), as the two countries obtained more than half of the arms imports to the continent, which represent 56%, while imports of the continent in the same increase by 20%.

Arms race between the two brother countries, in the opinion of experts, is due to their good economic situation relatively, of course, before the collapse of oil prices for Algeria, and the “cold war” between them, which raises serious doubts about the intentions of the two parties, and on the background of the dispute over the Western Sahara issue, and the drug cells which consider the eastern neighbour of the kingdom as a “weapon of mass destruction” that targets its internal stability, in addition to the serious regional tensions.

In terms of Arab world, the report of the Institute of Peace and Armement Affairs explained, that Saudi Arabia raised its imports of weapons, in the same period, by 275%, representing about 7% of the total imports of arms in the world, and becomes the second largest importer after India (14%), and China (7.4%).

Same report shows the rising of arms imports in the Middle East, during the period between 2011 and 2015, largely, and estimated them at about two-thirds, compared to the period between 2006 and 2010, and it is due, according to followers of the Arab Coalition, which is engaged in the “Determination storm” in Yemen, expecting the continuation of receiving large supplies of arms to the region, despite the decline in oil prices, given the geopolitical stakes.

“United States and Russia remain the primary beneficiary, which sales increased in the last five years, as the first sells third of the weapons in the world, and its sales increased by 27%, and its most important customers are Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey, and the second controlled a quarter of the world’s exports of weapons, and its most important customers are India, China and Vietnam, at a time when China’s exports increased by 88%, in the period between 2006 and 2010, and now it occupies the third place by about 6% of the global arms trade.