Fake War between Algeria and Morocco
For some time now, the Algerian and Moroccan governments have been waging a fierce war of words, with false news, false arguments and blatant distortions of the reality of both sides. It is a battle of 'Fake News', through all possible media, audiovisual, written and, above all, through the internet on social networks.
The corresponding Propaganda Ministries, in the style of Joseph Goebbels, do not exist as such, but their offices are housed in the secret services, in the Ministries of the Interior, and in a series of audiovisual information committees. In both countries, in addition to journalists addicted to official propaganda, there are numerous hackers and cells operating on the main social network portals, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, dedicated to fabricating fake news, manipulated audio and videos with non-existent dialogue.
For example, a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking to journalists on a plane is circulating on the networks. He is attributed with claims that Algeria has requested 22 million Israeli vaccines, which Tel Aviv has accepted, and that, in the hypothetical case of a military confrontation between Algeria and Israel, the Algerian army - Netanyahu dixit - would not last more than ten hours. These are completely false intentions aimed at humiliating Morocco's Maghreb rival and creating confusion among Algerian public opinion, which is immersed in the popular protests in the Hiraq, demanding a change of regime and the establishment of a state based on the rule of law and democratic freedoms. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune goes so far as to claim that 97 per cent of fake news about Algeria comes from Moroccan and Israeli sources.
Some other videos are circulating with a more confusing origin, implicating Spain. "Canaries belongs to Morocco", says one. "We are going to cut the throats of all the unfaithful Spaniards who do not praise [Prophet] Muhammad", says another. These statements are aimed at stirring up trouble between Rabat and Madrid at a time when a qualitative leap in bilateral relations is taking shape in the run-up to the next RAN (High Level Meeting) between Spain and Morocco, with the possible meeting between President Pedro Sánchez and King Mohammed VI, which has already been postponed twice.
The Polisario Front is also playing the game of fake news, even showing, for example, a supposedly Moroccan military drone shot down by its anti-aircraft defence in Saharan territory, when it is a Turkish military device shot down on the border between Turkey and Syria. Not to mention the daily military reports issued by the Polisario on alleged attacks against Moroccan garrisons and military units, never verified either by MINURSO or by international journalistic sources.
During the 30 years of its existence, MINURSO has reported thousands of ceasefire violations between the Moroccan army and Polisario militias, some of them major, involving troop movements, stockpiling of supplies, shootings and armed clashes. MINURSO has 235 military personnel spread throughout the Sahara, with two major installations in Tindouf and Laayoune. The UN mission has not reported any of the clashes claimed in the Polisario's war reports.
Contrary to what might be expected, this 'Fake War' between Rabat and Algiers, far from strengthening their diplomacy, weakens it. By fabricating false news, some officials end up believing it. The failure of Algerian diplomacy in the Sahel, a region in which Algeria is losing influence, and in Libya, where the regime did not foresee the evolution of the situation in Gaddafi's country, show a fading diplomacy.
The same could be said of Morocco, where diplomacy has suffered a serious setback with the unexpected outcome of the Peace and Security Council meeting of the African Union, which resulted in a communiqué relatively favourable to the Polisario Front in its confrontation with the Kingdom of Morocco over the sovereignty of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. The Council calls for a "cessation of hostilities" and the creation of conditions conducive to "direct negotiations between the Saharawi Republic (SADR) and the Kingdom of Morocco". Although the discussions in the PSC have no legal or resolutive character, and do not change the fact that the only framework for discussion on the Sahara conflict is the United Nations, Moroccan diplomacy has suffered a setback. The day before the meeting, it presented Kenya as a "loyal friend" and the meeting as insignificant, and the day after, Kenya became unfriendly and an instigator of African disunity, for which Rabat deplored "the irresponsible and crafty attitude of Kenya and its allies".
This atypical war in cyberspace between the two Maghreb neighbours is already underway. One positive thing is that, as long as it is a war of words, it will not escalate into a war of arms.