Tension between Algeria and Morocco could rise a notch with the return to power of Donald Trump in the United States, a privileged partner of the kingdom. The border between the two neighbors has been closed for 25 years. In anticipation of a possible armed attack from Algeria, the Moroccan authorities announced the strengthening of border surveillance with this neighboring country. “Surveillance of our borders is one of the main concerns of our armed forces,” Abdelatif Loudiyi, Moroccan Defense Minister, said on Friday when presenting his department’s 2025 budget to parliament.
Read: Morocco will strengthen its borders with Algeria
Morocco and Algeria have been engaged in an arms race for more than a decade. With 24 billion euros in military budget for 2025, Algeria is the country with the highest military spending in Africa. Morocco comes in second place with a military budget of 12 billion euros for 2025, relays The Countrynoting that these budgets increased by more than 7% compared to the previous year and represent approximately 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of each of the two rival countries.
This rearmament threatens economic development, as well as peace and stability in the region. “This significant increase underlines Morocco’s strategic choice to strengthen the defense capabilities of its armed forces in an increasingly unstable regional and international context,” analyzes military expert Nizar Derdabi for TelQuel, referring to terrorist threats coming from the Sahel and those of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria in the conflict in the Sahara.
Read: Morocco-Algeria tensions: the specter of an armed conflict is becoming clearer
In his speech on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Green March at the beginning of November, King Mohammed VI invited Algeria, without mentioning it by name, to abandon the destabilizing maneuvers of those who “seek a way out towards the Atlantic” . A week later, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, in an intervention before parliament, warned against the presence of “signs of escalation [de la guerre] from Algeria, with an apparent desire to move on from the regional conflict [actuel] to a direct confrontation. Furthermore, the “low intensity” war continues in the Sahara. Morocco recently announced that it had killed seven Sahrawi militiamen during drone attacks in retaliation for armed actions by the Polisario.
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