The foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—having withdrawn from ECOWAS and formally established the Alliance of Sahel States—declared their intention to shift all trade through Morocco’s Atlantic ports, abandoning reliance on Algeria’s faltering corridors. While this decision was framed as an economic pivot, it carries profound strategic consequences: by consolidating the Sahel’s maritime lifeline in Morocco, the United States gains a clear, reliable channel to detect and disrupt jihadist smuggling networks at their source, far beyond what was possible when routes snaked through Algeria’s opaque, compromised ports.
Tanger Med and the Port of Casablanca together handle over nine million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) annually, vastly outpacing Algeria’s port throughput and offering the scale and redundancy critical for uninterrupted logistics operations .
The threat is far from theoretical. In recent months, senior officials in Mali and Niger have openly accused Algeria of turning a blind eye—or worse, quietly enabling—the movement of jihadist factions across the Sahel. Militants affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State routinely transit Algerian territory, exploiting porous borders and unofficial safe havens provided by corrupt elements within Algeria’s southern provinces. Reports from Malian intelligence services allege that Algerian security forces have tolerated the buildup of armed groups near Tamanrasset and Djanet, allowing them to smuggle weapons, cash, and fighters into Mali’s vulnerable northern regions. Instead of confronting these networks, Algiers appears to have calculated that exporting instability southward would shield its own territory while weakening Western influence in the Sahel. The result is a steady flow of arms and extremist ideology pouring into already fragile states, fueling the resurgence of terrorist insurgencies that now directly threaten American security interests across West Africa.
Maritime security cooperation should also be strengthened—but always under Morocco’s leadership.
Morocco’s ports, therefore, function as the first line of defense against the flow of weapons, fighters, and illicit financing. Historically, extremist networks exploited Algeria’s transit points precisely because they lacked transparent customs procedures, modern scanning technology, and effective enforcement. Containers vanished into desert smuggling routes, fueling the Sahel’s terror economy. UN peacekeepers, local villages, and even U.S.-trained counterterror forces became regular targets of attacks bankrolled and armed via Algeria’s permissive logistics routes .
Yet U.S. security assistance has lagged behind the rapidly evolving dynamics on the ground. As Algeria turns inward and increasingly enables instability through inaction—or complicity—the United States must recalibrate its partnerships in North Africa. Morocco stands out not just for its modern infrastructure and economic dynamism, but for its alignment with U.S. strategic priorities. The country has maintained open lines of communication with Washington, cooperated on intelligence-sharing, and actively supported regional counterterrorism efforts across the Sahel.
A more effective American approach would be to deepen operational coordination with Morocco’s port authorities, expand joint counterterrorism training programs, and formalize Morocco’s role as a regional logistics and security partner. Rather than treating Morocco as a peripheral ally, Washington should make it central to its Sahel strategy—supporting efforts to interdict illicit trade, dismantle smuggling networks, and harden the security of supply chains extending into West Africa. This would not require large-scale deployments or headline-grabbing investments. What it demands is strategic clarity: that any serious effort to contain jihadist violence in the Sahel must begin by securing the Atlantic flank, and Morocco is the only stable, capable, and willing partner to anchor that effort.
Maritime security cooperation should also be strengthened—but always under Morocco’s leadership. Instead of deploying foreign assets directly into Moroccan waters, the United States should focus on providing targeted support: advanced maritime surveillance equipment, port security technologies, and intelligence-sharing frameworks that enhance Morocco’s own naval capabilities. By expanding joint training programs, increasing logistical support for Moroccan patrol operations, and assisting with modern monitoring systems for Atlantic shipping lanes, Washington can reinforce a Moroccan-led security shield that protects trade routes without infringing on national sovereignty. The goal must not be to impose external control, but to empower a trusted ally to safeguard the Atlantic gateway that both Morocco and the United States have a shared interest in keeping secure.
History has shown the cost of hesitation. In Mali after 2014 and Libya after 2011, extremists leveraged unpoliced weapons caches to expand across West Africa and beyond. Today, Morocco’s modern ports, advanced security capabilities, and growing trade ties to the Sahel offer the U.S. a chance to rewrite that history—to deny jihadists the smuggling corridors they need to thrive.
