Summary

Non-signatory Algeria views the Convention on Cluster Munitions favorably but has not taken any steps to accede to it. Algeria last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2015, where it expressed firm opposition to cluster munitions. Algeria has voted in favor of key annual United Nations (UN) resolutions promoting the convention, most recently in December 2021.

Algeria is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it is reported to possess a stockpile.

Policy

The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Algeria regards the convention banning cluster munitions favorably, but has not taken any steps to join. In March 2019, an Algerian official told the Monitor that the government’s position on joining the convention had not changed.[1] In 2015, Algeria told States Parties that the convention “provides a useful international norm to the global regime on disarmament.”[2]

Algeria participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process, but did not attend the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 or the Oslo Signing Conference in December later that year.[3] At the Vienna conference in December 2007, Algeria described cluster munitions as “evil weapons” requiring urgent action through “a legally binding instrument.”[4]

According to a United States (US) Department of State cable released by Wikileaks in 2011, US officials met with Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February 2008 and urged Algeria to avoid the adoption of a convention “that would interfere with cooperation efforts aimed at non-state parties.”[5]

Over the past decade, Algerian officials have raised national security concerns in response to requests to join the convention as well as the need for neighboring countries to join.[6] Algeria’s direct neighbors Mali and Tunisia are States Parties to the convention, while Libya is not.

Algeria participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and attended an international meeting of the convention in 2010. This marks its only participation to date in the work of the convention. Algeria was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Review Conference in November 2020 and September 2021, or its intersessional meetings in May 2022.

Nonetheless, Algeria voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in December 2021, which urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[7] Algeria has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since 2016, after abstaining from the vote in 2015 when the resolution was first introduced.

Algeria is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Algeria is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.

Algeria has imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile. Jane’s Information Group reported in 2004 that KMGU dispensers that deploy submunitions were in service for aircraft of the Algerian Air Force.[8] Algeria also possesses surface-launched Grad 122mm, Uragan 220mm, and Smerch 300mm rockets, but it is not known if they include cluster munition variants.[9]