Arms imports into the African continent have fallen by 40% in the past five years, data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) earlier this week showed. African countries, including Morocco and Algeria, which remain among the countries that spend the most on armaments on the continent, have imported less in recent years.
Indeed, the report indicates a significant drop in arms imports, particularly for the Kingdom and its eastern neighbor, which amounts to 20% and 58% respectively. The two neighboring countries are in the top 30 major arms importing countries on the planet. Algeria is even ranked sixth in the world, according to statistics for the period 2015/2019 and its imports represent 4.3% of global arms imports, mainly from Russia (73%), Germany (10%) and France (5.2%) China and Iran sharing a few crumbs of the rest of the cake.
Algeria has increased its arms imports by 64%, compared to those between 2011 and 2015, while Morocco has reduced its imports by 60%. Morocco, of which the USA remains the leading supplier (76%), ahead of France (15%) and China (6.8%), ranks 29th with 0.8% of world major arms imports , compared to 1.1% for the period 2013-2017. The report highlights that the main suppliers to Africa in 2018-2022 were Russia, with 40% of African imports of major arms, followed by the United States (16%), China (9.8%) and France (7.6%).
For countries in sub-Saharan Africa, imports also fell by 23%. Angola, Nigeria and Mali are the main recipients. Russia is now the largest supplier to the sub-region, overtaking China, according to the SIPRI report. The other main suppliers of these African countries during the period analyzed were the United States (16%), China (9.8%) and France (7.6%).
The report also points out that the volume of international arms transfers between 2018 and 2022 was 5.1% lower than between 2013 and 2017 but remains 4.8% higher than between 2008 and 2012. The report also points out that imports of major weapons by European states increased by 47% between 2013-2017 and 2018-2022, while the overall volume of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1%.
There was also a drop in arms transfers to Africa (-40%), the Americas (-21%), Asia and Oceania (-7.5%) and the Middle East (-8.8%) between the two periods. The top five arms importers in 2018-22 were India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China. In Africa, Egypt occupies the podium (6th in the world (+136%)) with a share of world arms imports which reaches 4.5%. Arms supplied by Russia (34%), Italy (19%) and France (19%).
Africa is not the only Continent to have “stifled” its ardor in arms, the trend is at the global level and it has decreased by 5.1%. The conflict in Ukraine had only one ” limited impact on the total volume of arms transfers between 2018 and 2022. However Ukraine has become a major arms importer in 2022, with 31% of European imports, it has become the world’s third largest arms importer over the course of the past fiscal year. In addition, most European states have significantly increased their arms import orders. They even almost doubled (+93%) in 2022, compared to the previous year.
Among the first arms exporting countries in the world, following the United States, Russia and France, five countries saw their arms exports fall, China (-23%), Germany (-35%) , the United Kingdom (-35%), Spain (-4.4%) and Israel (-15%), while two others, Italy (+45%) and South Korea (+74 %), showed strong increases.