Morocco Emerges as Top African Arms Importer, SIPRI Report Reveals

The report also reveals that it was between 2015 and 2019 that arms sales and purchases saw an increase of 5%, while between 2010 and 2015, the African continent recorded a decrease of 16%. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which published the report, explains that while several "African states have stagnated in terms of armaments, others have engaged in a real race".

This essentially concerns Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, who have sourced from the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Russia remains the largest supplier in the MENA region, exporting the most arms (49%), ahead of the United States (14%) and China (13%).

North Africa alone accounts for 74% of arms imports on the continent. Algeria takes the lion’s share, with 79% of imports, and Morocco, which remains loyal to American arms (91%), bought 8.9% in France and 0.3% in the United Kingdom in 2015-2019. For SIPRI, the arms race has seen an increase due to "long-standing tensions between Algeria and Morocco, and tensions and concerns related to the conflicts in Mali and Libya".

In the top 10, Saudi Arabia leads the ranking of the world’s largest importers, with 12% of global operations, followed by India (9.2%), Egypt (5.8%), Australia (4.9%), China (4.3%), Algeria (4.2%), South Korea (3.4%), the United Arab Emirates (3.4%), Iraq (3.4%) and Qatar (3.4%).