The African arms market is shaped by historical relationships and current politics. Most African countries that buy arms, get them from Russia, France, the United States and China, the global top-four, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI’s) arms transfer database.
Although the United States is the world’s largest arms exporter, its exports to Africa are lower in value compared with Russia and France – measured in trend indicator values (TIVs), a system devised by the SIPRI to measure the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons using a common unit.
Russia, which supplies arms to 23 African countries, exports the most arms by value to Africa. It has deep roots with many of these countries dating back to independence struggles and Cold War-era conflicts.
China, despite transferring less advanced military technology than its competitors, has the widest reach — supplying arms to 36 African countries.
Egypt, Algeria and Morocco account for most of the arms bought by African countries. Between 2014 and 2024, Egypt, Africa’s top weapons buyer, was also the fourth-biggest weapons buyer in the world (surpassed only by Saudi Arabia, India and Qatar) and Algeria ranks 11th.

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