The paroxysm of the toxic relation between Algeria and Morocco occurred on November 3 when Algeria blamed Morocco for killing three Algerian civilians in an aerial attack on their trucks. The event occurred in the demilitarized border area between Mauritania and Western Sahara.
According to the Algerian Press Service APS – Algeria’s official news agency, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune vowed to avenge the death of the three men, and that the warlike incident “would not go unpunished.”
After troubling images of torched trucks circulated on social media on November 2, Mauritania said there had been no bombardment on its soil.
“The three Algerian truck drivers were killed near the oasis town of Bir-Lehlou in Western Sahara.”
The Algerian official account did not give any tangible details as to the site where the attack happened. However, Algerian defense analyst Akram Kharief stated that “the three Algerian truck drivers were killed near the oasis town of Bir-Lehlou in Western Sahara,” near the Mauritanian border in Polisario-held territory.
For many analysts, this tragic event is a boon for the Algerian regime. It will enable the powers that be to galvanize its base. Furthermore, a reliable source told Inside Arabia that the death of the three truck drivers was manufactured by the Algerian state intelligence service DRS (Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité) and the Polisario Front.
The objective was to defuse the current socio-political tension at home on the eve of the local and provincial councils’ elections of Nov. 27 in Algeria which large segments of the opposition have rejected.
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At first, Moroccan authorities declined to comment on the allegation, but a Moroccan official informed the AFP news agency that the Royal Air Forces have “never targeted and will never target Algerian citizens, regardless of the circumstances and the provocations . . . and if Algeria wants war, Morocco doesn’t.”
This unfortunate episode draws attention to the possible confrontation between the two Maghrebi (North African) countries after years of discord and contention due to the disputed territory of Western Sahara, the Pegasus scandal, and Morocco’s recent rapprochement with Israel.
Morocco “never targeted and will never target Algerian citizens, regardless of the circumstances and the provocations . . . and if Algeria wants war, Morocco doesn’t.”
However, it should be mentioned that the Western Sahara issue has fueled the most animosity between the authorities in Algeria and Morocco. Since the early 1970s, the Algerian regime has hosted and provided financial and military backing to the armed Western Sahara’s Polisario Front – a movement that is struggling to get full independence for Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony in North Africa. But Morocco considers the land as an integral part of its own territory.
Ever since the November 1975 Green March, a mass rally staged by King Hassan II to drive colonial Spain to hand over the province of Spanish Sahara to Morocco, the kingdom now controls 80 percent of Western Sahara. Morocco wants to retain this control, as the territory contains massive phosphate reserves and is one of the world’s richest fishing grounds on the Atlantic shore.
The enmity between the two regimes is deep-rooted. Months after Algeria got its independence from France, Algerian and Moroccan armies fought over the delimitation of the western border, in what was referred to as the Sand War in 1963. In January 1976, the two armies clashed again around the desert town of Amgala in Western Sahara.
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When these hostilities reached a point of no return, King Hassan II cut diplomatic ties with Algeria, and former Algerian president Houari Boumediene decided to drive out thousands of Moroccan citizens from the country, a rift that damaged a time-honored relation between the people of both countries.
With the advent of the Arab Maghreb Union in 1989, there were hopes that both countries would settle their self-centered disputes. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and Algeria shut its land borders with Morocco in 1994.
Tensions between the two countries went from bad to worse last August, when Algiers broke off diplomatic ties with Rabat, blaming last summer’s deadly fires on two groups the authorities have labeled as “terrorist” organizations.
Algerian officials claim that the Rashad group and the Movement for the self-determination of Kabylia (Mouvement pour l’Autodétermination de la Kabylie – MAK), which seeks self-governing rule for the Kabylia region of northern Algeria, are backed by Morocco and “the Zionist entity,” i.e., Israel.
The December 2020 Abraham Accords further exacerbated the tensions between the two sister countries.
The December 2020 Abraham Accords further exacerbated the tensions between the two sister countries.
When Morocco normalized diplomatic ties with Israel as part of a deal brokered by the Trump administration, which recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, Algeria saw this as a direct threat to its stability.
It is in this context that Morocco’s relations with Algeria became more confrontational. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Kingdom increased its military expenditures by 50 percent in the last ten years, while Algeria’s military spending amounted to US$9.7 billion in 2020.
Moreover, the Abraham Accords have facilitated the Moroccan acquisition of more military technology from Israel. During his recent visit to Morocco, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz formalized the defense ties between the two countries.
In retaliation, Algeria ordered Sonatrach, the state oil firm, to discontinue gas delivery to Morocco through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline and supply Spain directly.
What also makes the current situation explosive is the two countries respective popular dissatisfaction with domestic socio-economic and political issues. This would inevitably lead both regimes in Algeria and Morocco to use the constant “external threat card” to stifle civil liberties and muzzle any dissenting voices.
It would be wiser for the Algerian authorities and the Moroccan Makhzen (governing body) to favor a much-needed strategic dialogue and leveling of differences since both countries will ultimately greatly benefit from such rapprochement.
