Morocco Emerges as Africa’s Second-Largest Drone Power, Outpacing Regional Rivals

According to data compiled by Military Africa for the period 1980-2024, and published on April 5, the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces would have acquired 233 drones from its partners, making it the second drone power in Africa, behind Egypt which has 260, and far ahead of Algeria (5th, 121 drones) and Tunisia (7th, 59 drones). Countries like Mauritania, which would only have four drones, do not seem to be interested in this new technology yet.

"This approach is part of a general trend. Over the past ten years, the number of African countries actively using armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has quadrupled... North Africa is among the good customers of this technology. It accounts for half of the number of UAVs on the continent, or 818 in total," writes Jeune Afrique.

Morocco has acquired most of its military drones from China and Israel, but also from the United States, Turkey, India or Australia. The kingdom has 160 Israeli drones, 26 American drones and about twenty Turkish drones. "Why have they only bought this category? They are preferred by many countries because of their ability to fly long distances," the publication specifies.

Morocco does not intend to stop there. It aims to manufacture surveillance and combat drones locally and to create a military aircraft maintenance plant. "The Moroccan Minister in charge of National Defense Administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, has again emphasized this objective in a report on the draft budget allocated to defense for 2023," reports Jeune Afrique.