25 June 2021

Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army (ANP), Said Chanegriha, reiterated Thursday in Moscow Algeria’s “unwavering commitment”to jointly work with its partners to face the security challenges to which the international community is exposed, especially in the Maghreb and Sahel-Saharan region, said the Ministry of National Defense (MDN) in a statement.

“I reiterate the unwavering commitment of Algeria to jointly work with its partners to address the security challenges facing the international community, especially in the Maghreb and Sahel-Saharan region, and this, through the development of cooperation mechanisms required, within the framework of respect for international legality,” said Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha in an address delivered on the second day of the 9th Conference on International Security, hosted by the Russian Federation.

At the beginning of his speech, Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha said that “the international and regional situation is experiencing “difficult and multidimensional geopolitical changes, which result in new challenges and threats to security and peace in our region.

“Indeed, despite the decrease in the number of threats and risks of armed conflict between traditional governmental actors, it is clear that current threats are cross-border threats and often related to non-governmental actors and have become multifaceted and more aggressive,” he said.

“This comment also applies to the African continent in general and the Sahel-Saharan and Maghreb regions in particular where this region really suffers from the throes of terrorism, arms, drug, and human trafficking, cyber threats and other cross-border organized crime,” added Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha.

Among other challenges, he also mentioned “the impact of climate change, water scarcity, famine, and unprecedented flows of immigrants.”

The Lieutenant General recalled some of the factors causing destabilization in the world in general and in the region in particular, “such as epidemiological risks, tribal conflicts, the exodus of people fleeing from areas of violence, in addition to the poverty suffered by the people of this region, which has exacerbated the security crisis characterizing this region, “he said.

These challenges will hamper, in the short and medium term, the continent’s development, and will open the way to foreign interference, under the pretext of possible efforts to restore order in areas affected by violence.

Addressing the issue of Western Sahara, “the last colony in Africa and whose people aspire to freely exercise their right to self-determination,” Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha stressed the need for the UN to assume its responsibilities in order to address this conflict.