Morocco Rose to World’s Twelfth-largest Arms Importer, a Report
By Mourad Anouar
Morocco News Tribune
Oklahoma, U.S.A | The volume of arms deliveries to Morocco increased by 1460 per cent between 2003–2007 and 2008–12, making the Kingdom rise from being 69th largest recipient to 12th largest, according to a Sweden-based think-tank report on global weapons sales released Monday.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Morocco’s imports during 2008–12 included 24 F-16C combat aircraft from the USA, 27 MF-2000 combat aircraft from France, 3 SIGMA frigates from the Netherlands and 54 Type-90-2 tanks from China.
Preceding Morocco is Algeria whose volume of imports increased by 277 per cent between 2003–2007 and 2008–12, which pumps its ranking from 22nd to 6th largest recipient. Morocco, Algeria and South Africa were by far the largest arms importers in Africa in 2008–12.
Russia is number one supplier of arms to Algeria with 93 per cent , including 44 Su-30MKA combat aircraft, 2 Project-636 submarines, an estimated 3 S-300PMU-2 (SA-20B) long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and 185 T-90S tanks.
“Imports by African states increased 104 per cent between 2003–2007 and 2008–12. During 2003–2007 countries in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 71per cent of the imports to Africa; during 2008–12 these countries imported 5 per cent more arms,” said the report.
On other hand, China has toppled the UK as the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter with Pakistan the main recipient.