DRC, South Sudan Recorded Largest Military Spending Increase in 2023

ADF STAFF

The Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2023 recorded the largest increase in military spending globally as local and international forces worked to secure the country’s conflict-ridden eastern areas. South Sudan reported the world’s second-highest increase.

The DRC’s military spending increased by 105% to $794 million, according to the Trends in World Military Expenditure 2023 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The report noted that the DRC’s increased spending also “coincided with growing tensions with Rwanda” and “a government move to strengthen the DRC’s armed forces after it demanded the early withdrawal of a large-scale United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country,” known as MONUSCO. The mission is expected to completely withdraw by the end of December.

Eastern DRC experienced relative calm for about six months in 2023, but fighting resumed in the North Kivu province bordering Rwanda and Uganda in October.

South Sudan recorded a 78% increase in military spending to more than $1 billion last year. The country’s military spending increased by 108% in 2022, according to the SIPRI report, which attributed the increased expenditure to “escalating internal violence” and security challenges related to the civil war in neighboring Sudan.

Violence also continued in South Sudan, despite increased spending. The last quarter of 2023 saw a 35% surge in the number of civilians affected by violence compared to the previous quarter and continued into the new year.

A spate of violence in late January and early February 2024 consisted of separate conflicts pitting armed young people from Warrap State against rivals from the neighboring Lakes and Western Bar El Ghazal states, as well as the disputed Abyei territory, an administrative area that is jointly run by South Sudan and Sudan.

South Sudan is scheduled to hold elections in December for the first time since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

Researchers at SIPRI said conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine drove a rise in military spending but noted that the increase was a global phenomenon seen across all continents. Expenditures rose by 9% in the Middle East, 16% in Europe, 4.4% in Asia and Oceania, 2.2% in the Americas and 22% in Africa.

“The increase itself is not too surprising, but it’s the scale and scope of the increase,” Xiao Liang, a researcher in SIPRI’s military expenditure and arms production program, told DW. “For the global trend, if the current conflicts and tensions continue, we will probably see more increase in the coming years.”

Faced with numerous ongoing security challenges, Nigeria reported a 20% increase in military spending last year. Sub-Saharan countries overall increased military spending by 8.9% compared to 2022.

North African countries recorded a 38% jump in defense spending over 2022. Algeria’s spending rose 76% to $18.3 billion, the highest level of its military expenditure since 1974. This was facilitated by a drastic increase in gas exports to European countries that moved away from Russian supplies, the report found.

Morocco, however, recorded a 2.5% decrease in military spending, to $5.2 billion.