For These Reasons, Morocco Was Unable To Keep Up With Algeria In Armaments’ Realm

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report classified Algeria first in North Africa and in the Maghreb in terms of armaments, significantly ahead of its neighbor Morocco, which ranked, according to the report, in second spot.

The report said that military expenditures by North African countries were estimated at about 23.5 billion dollars in 2019, which represents more than half of the continent’s expenditures by 57 percent of the total armament expenditures.

The Stockholm Institute, which has been recently joined in its board of directors by former Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, believes that the rise in the pace of armaments in North Africa is mainly due to the continuing “long-term tension between Morocco and Algeria, as well as the rebellion and civil wars in Libya”, which have turned into a hotbed of instability in the area.

The report pointed out that military spending in North Africa increased by 4.6 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year, and the volume of armaments increased by 67 percent compared to the previous decade.

The report noted that Algeria spent about $ 10.3 billion in 2019 on arms purchases, which is the highest number in North Africa, and represents 44 percent of total military expenditures in the region, as military spending in Algeria has increased steadily since 2000, especially in the period 2004-2016, according to the same source.

Observers attribute the high costs of Algeria to armament to many other factors away from the silent conflict with Morocco, as it counts about seven thousand km of land borders with countries that live in a tense and sometimes explosive situation.

The southern borders touch upon countries in which the state’s authority is absent, such as Mali and Niger, which suffer from security instability, as well as the presence of foreign and French forces in particular in these countries, which increases the responsibility of the People’s National Army (ANP) in striving to secure the southern borders.

The eastern neighbor Libya has also turned into a theater of war stoked by many proxy countries, such as France, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, which makes the task of securing the eastern and southeastern borders an arduous matter, requiring advanced technological capabilities to deter any possible attack on the national soil.

In addition, the traditional conflict with neighboring Morocco, which has lasted for nearly four decades and is still ongoing, is another factor that helps raise the costs of armaments, and it is one of the reasonable justifications that make the Algerian agreement away from Morocco, which lives in a semi-quiet sea, with limited resources, which remain very scarce compared to Algeria.
All of this data has made Algeria occupy the first rank in North Africa in terms of armament expenditures, even ahead of Egypt, which is now experiencing a severe economic crisis.

The report indicated that Morocco’s spending on arms purchases stopped at 3.7 billion dollars, which is a budget lower than that Algeria allocated to it, which amounted to 10.3 billion dollars, which means that Rabat is far from keeping up with Algeria in terms of armament.

It is noteworthy that the global military spending in 2019 reached its highest levels since the end of the Cold War, and the United States ranked first worldwide.