SUMMARY
Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, after a long and bloody struggle spearheaded by The National Liberation Front (FLN). A presidential republic was established with FLN leader, Ahmed Ben Bella, elected the first President of Algeria. Under his leadership, the government engaged in an interstate conflict against the Government of Morocco over the disputed territory of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as Western Sahara, in 1963. Although the FLN was the only political party in Algeria, internal divisions resulted in Bella being overthrown by his Defense Minister Houari Boumediene in 1965, who then took over until his death in 1978. Chadli Benjedid became president and, following social unrest driven by economic conditions, he opened up the country to a multiparty system in 1989. However, when it became clear that the incumbent FLN party would lose the first general elections, Benjedid was forced to declare a state of emergency by the military and dissolve parliament January – February 1992. A Higher State Council took over under the leadership of Mohamed Boudiaf, which triggered an armed response from several groups (for more information, see Algeria: Government conflict. Boudiaf was soon assassinated in July 1992 and replaced by Liamine Zeroual, who went on to win presidential elections in 1995. However, he lost in the 1999 elections to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to lift the 19 year long state of emergency in 2011 because of large protests over the social and economic conditions in Algeria. This unrest triggered further protests in the region, which became known as the Arab spring. Despite maintaining the presidency through four elections, Bouteflika was forced to resign in April 2019 due to upset over his attempt to run for a fifth term in office. As of May 2019, Abdelkader Bensalah, served as the interim President of Algeria.
In 2019, the Government of Algeria had 130 000 active armed forces and 187 000 active paramilitary troops. It also had an estimated 150 000 reservists available.
The following actors provided support to the Government of Algeria during armed conflicts:
During the nineties, the governments of Egypt, France and Tunisia supported the Algerian government with its conflict against the AIS and GIA (for more information, see Algeria: Government conflict). While the Egyptian government provided military equipment, the Tunisian government permitted access to military and intelligence infrastructure and France supported Algeria with political support and economic funding.
In 2000, the Government of Morocco collaborated militarily with the Algerian government to fight against GIA and AQIM along their common border. Similarly, the Government of the United States of America provided training and expertise, intelligence and non-lethal equipment to support Algerian forces against GIA and AQIM as part of the US “War on Terror”. The Government of Mali provided its troops as secondary warring support to the Government of Algeria to fight against AQIM in 2004 (for more information, see Algeria: Government conflict).
