Days after Egypt and Germany reached an agreement for the supply of arms worth $800 million, Morocco has reportedly secured a military technology sharing deal with Brazil. Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita visited Brazil last week, where the deal was possibly concluded. Morocco wants to build its defense industry, with an eye on solidifying local sufficiency.
Morocco spent about $6.2 billion on arms importation between 2011 and 2015, just before it initiated plans to develop local arms manufacturing capacity. In that same period, two other North African nations, Algeria and Egypt, spent a combined $29 billion on arms imports, suggesting that each country is mimicking the other’s move. There’s an agenda that is not yet clear.
What is known is that this big rush for arms coincides with a period of increased regional aggression as well as individual-nation instabilities. The Libya situation continues to escalate. Chaos is the state of affairs in Sudan. All is not exactly quiet in Algeria, where elections have been postponed. Interestingly, Morocco seems to be tied in a two-way arms race with Algeria. Strategic Defense Intelligence, a comprehensive monitor of the global defense industry, speculates that Morocco is upgrading its military capacities in order to “contain Algeria and become Africa’s leading army by 2022.”
With an estimated budget increment between 2018 and 2022, Morocco looks to intensify the importation of fighter and training aircraft, ships, missiles, tanks, warplanes, helicopters, submarines, and ammunition. And more importantly, prepare its own blueprint for developing a local arms industry that will slowly reduce the need for importation at all.
In 2017, Morocco was the thirteenth largest arms importer in the world and was only outspent in Africa by neighbours Algeria. That same year, Saudi Arabia agreed to fund some of Morocco’s local military development. The country then began talks with Spain, the US, France, Belgium, and the UK.
In March this year, it purchased 25 US aircrafts in Morocco’s single biggest deal historically. A news release from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the deal would “improve the security of a major Non-NATO ally that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in North Africa.” The statement also hinted at improving Morocco’s self-defence capabilities, adding that the acquisition would “not alter the basic military balance in the region (North Africa).”
Shifted military balance is the last thing Africa needs in any region. On top of that, the UN had warned in 2016 that a full-blown war could be imminent as Morocco has been locked in a sovereignty battle with parties claiming Western Sahara since Spain relinquished the colony in 1975. Believed to hold sizable offshore oil deposits, Western Sahara is partially controlled by the Moroccan authorities and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
By Caleb Ajinomoh
