Algiers and Rabat continue their arm wrestling from a distance, in particular through large-scale military maneuvers at the borders
Since Monday, June 20, the United States and Morocco have launched in Agadir, a city in southern Morocco, the African Lion 2022 military exercise, the largest on the continent. This year, it takes place in a climate of regional tensions with neighboring Algeria.
The maneuver should mobilize no less than 7,500 soldiers from ten countries and last ten days, mainly in Morocco but also in Tunisia, Senegal and Ghana, said the United States Command for Africa (AFRICOM).
African Lion 2022 aims in particular to “strengthen our common defense capabilities to counter transnational threats and violent extremist organizations”, said an AFRICOM press release. The number two of the Moroccan army, General Belkhir El Farouk, called on Monday in a speech to face “security challenges”.
Land, airborne, airborne, maritime, decontamination exercises, etc., in Morocco, the maneuvers will take different forms. They will take place more precisely in Kenitra, near Rabat, and in several regions of the South, in particular in Mahbès, on the Algerian border, according to the staff of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR).
Airborne troop jumps and artillery fire in the desert are planned on the edge of Western Sahara, not far from the Algerian commune of Tindouf. This is where the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front have taken refuge.
As a reminder, the Polisario Front no longer recognizes the 1991 ceasefire with Rabat since intervention by the Moroccan army, in November 2020, in the south of the territory to dislodge Sahrawi fighters accused of blocking a crossing point. road to Mauritania.
Since then, Sahrawi separatists have multiplied so-called “harassment” attacks against the Royal Armed Forces stationed along the wall erected by Rabat. The latest took place near the Mahbès sector, in an area close to the borders with Mauritania and Algeria, not far from one of the maneuver sites of the African Lion exercise.
Tensions between Algiers and Rabat have experienced a real escalation in recent times, leading to Algeria breaking off diplomatic relations, since the normalization in December 2020 of relations between Morocco and Israel in exchange for recognition by the Trump administration. of the “Moroccanness” of Western Sahara.
Series of maneuvers on the Algerian side
These important joint maneuvers by AFRICOM in Morocco, therefore, take place in a climate of tension between the two Maghreb neighbors. This is also highlighted by the Moroccan press, like the daily Al-Ahdath al-Maghribiya, which writes that the African Lion maneuvers “arouse fear within the Algerian junta, whose generals hastened to organize maneuvers, nocturnal soldiers, with live ammunition in the region of Tindouf”.
“According to a press release from the Algerian Ministry of Defense, it was the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Saïd Chanegriha, who supervised this night tactical exercise, entitled “Somoud [resistance] 2022”, the June 6 with live ammunition. The Spanish newspaper La Razón points out that these maneuvers took place in the southwestern region near Tindouf, a few kilometers from the borders with Morocco,” continues Al Ahdath al-maghribiya.
The Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, commenting on these maneuvers by the Algerian army, recalled that “at the end of last May, the Algerian navy [had] already carried out the naval tactical exercise ”Ouragan 2022” in border waters with Morocco. and Spain. Signs that have not gone unnoticed by observers, which indicate Algeria’s intention to show its fangs at a time of high tension in North Africa”.
On June 14, the Algerian army continued its annual combat preparation program by organizing another live-fire exercise in the operational sector of Bordj Badji Mokhtar, in the far south of Algeria.
Next November, the Russian and Algerian armies will carry out joint maneuvers near Béchar (southwest) not far from the border with Morocco.
Some 80 Russian soldiers and units of the Algerian army are expected to participate in these exercises, which will consist of “tactical movements aimed at searching, detecting and destroying illegal armed groups”.
Russia and Algeria carried out joint military exercises in South Ossetia (Caucasus) for the first time in October 2021.
Algerian defense expert Akram Kharief points out that during rehearsals of the African Lion exercise in Italy, Algeria and the Wagner group in Libya were identified as “enemies” threatening Morocco.
Translation: “NATO and AFRICOM should really stop using Algeria as an enemy in their war games only to complain out loud when the Algerian military tells them to fuck off… after invitations to this kind of exercises. Enjoy tea and hospitality in Morocco and seek enemies elsewhere!”
