Argelia: cifrado en 3 millones el gasto argelino para el lobby antimarroquí en África
The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Ramtane Lamamra, has reportedly earmarked some USD 3 million to finance activities to counter Moroccan foreign policy in Africa. It is the digital media Maghreb Intelligence that reports the news.
According to the article by Ilyes Aribi, the fund was created with the utmost discretion to lobby in the sub-Saharan region. Maghreb Intelligence claims that, with these funds, Algerian diplomacy is said to have financed the stays in Algeria of several members of the African ruling elite. In addition to these expenses, there are also various trips, gifts, study grants and the organisation of forums and conferences to discuss regional current affairs. According to the article published on the website, these forums have always been dealt with from the perspective of the interests of Algerian diplomacy and its strategic vision of Africa.
Ilyes Aribi, the author of the information, adds that the efforts of Algerian diplomacy are said to have focused particularly on defending the independence of Western Sahara and on "instaling this conviction in the minds of African elites".
According to an Algerian diplomatic source, quoted by the Franco-Moroccan media, this USD 3 million fund was primarily earmarked for West Africa, a sensitive region for Morocco and Algeria, rivals in North Africa and with several economic projects in direct competition in the region.
Morocco is making a strong diplomatic commitment in Africa, with several objectives. One of them is to armour itself and secure its position of strength in the African Union. After the tragedy in Nador in June 2022, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita summoned the ambassadors of some twenty African nations, allies of Morocco. The delegations closed ranks around the Moroccan version of events, a sign of the Moroccan foreign ministry's success with its African partners.
Algerian diplomacy, in its twilight years since the 1990s, as defined by researcher Kader Abderrahim, is now 'marginalised' in the face of regional unrest in the Sahel and the consequences of the Arab spring. However, it is trying to gain influence among sub-Saharan countries, serving as a gateway for Russia in the region. On the energy front, Algeria is strongly committed to the trans-Saharan gas pipeline project, which was revived in mid-2021 in the face of the progress of the Atlantic gas pipeline being promoted by Morocco in partnership with more than a dozen countries. If the Algerian lobby is particularly active in this region, the reputation of Morocco's Atlantic gas pipeline project could be one of its main targets.
Algerian investment in lobbying is not new. The government of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was known to have spent heavily on hiring the services of various public relations firms in the US capital of Washington DC. Between 2014 and 2020, the Algerian government reportedly spent around USD 2.3 million on the services of Foley Hoag LLP and Keene Consulting International. The visit of US Congressman James Inhofe to Algeria during this period was noteworthy. Inhofe is one of the main supporters of the Saharawi insurgent cause in the US, as well as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.