Morocco maintains the 29th position among the top 40 largest importers of major arms in 2022, according to the 2023 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Published today, the report identified the US as the main supplier of arms to the North African kingdom in 2022.
The report’s data shows that Morocco imports 76% of its arms from the US, followed by France (15%), and China (6.8%).
Earlier this year, Morocco ranked 61st out of 145 countries in the 2023 Global Firepower Index– which assesses countries’ military strength worldwide.
Like the previous report, SIPRI’s 2022 publication also reported a decline in imports of major arms by African states.
Unlike 2021 data, however, SIPRI’s recent 2023 publication reported a 40% decrease in imports of major arms by African states between 2013-2018 and 2018-2022, compared to as little as 13% between 2011 and 2015 also showing a decrease between 2016 – 2020.
The report attributed the change due to decreases in arms imports from the two largest importers in the region, namely Algeria and Morocco.
Morocco’s arms imports decreased by -30% while Algeria’s arms imports decreased by -58%.
Algeria moved down several places in the 2022 report, which ranked the North African country 18 among the 40 largest arms importers. Whereas in the 2021 report, SIPRI ranked Algeria as the 6th largest importer of arms worldwide in 2020.
Russia remains Algeria’s largest arms supplier with 73%, followed by Germany (10%) and France (5.2%).
Many have raised concerns about Algeria’s excessive purchases of Russian arms, including EU members and US congresspeople.
In September last year, 27 members of the US Congress called for immediate sanctions against the Algerian government for its involvement in the purchase of Russian arms.
In a bipartisan letter, the congresspeople stressed that Algeria’s purchase of Russian arms totaled $7 billion in 2021 alone.
Russia and the US also maintained their leading position as the main suppliers of arms to Africa between 2018 and 2022. Russia’s exports to Africa accounted for 40% during the same period, followed by the US (16%), China (9.8%), and France (7.6 %).
Sub-Saharan countries’ imports of arms accounted for 2.0 of the total global imports between the 2018-2022 period. The largest importers of arms in the region were Angola, Nigeria, and Mali.
The list of the 40 largest importers of arms worldwide ranks India first, followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia, and China.
Egypt took over Algeria’s 2021 position holding sixth place in the 2022 list, followed by South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, and the US.
The UAE ranked 11, followed by Kuwait, the UK, Ukraine, Norway, Israel, and the Netherlands.
