President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has conducted a sweeping reshuffle within the Ministry of National Defense (MDN), marked by a new wave of dismissals of major generals.
According to decrees published in the Official Gazette, several high-ranking officers have been relieved of their duties, including the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Command, a sign of the recurring turmoil shaking the Algerian military hierarchy.
Major General Mohammed Bouzouine, head of the Air Force Command, has been relieved of his duties. He is replaced by Major General Ahmed Selmi, appointed by Tebboune to lead a strategic command already characterised by frequent changes in recent years.
These rapid and rarely explained changes regularly fuel questions about the internal stability of the Algerian security establishment.
The reshuffle also affects the 4th Military Region, a key area for internal security.
Major General Ammar Zaimi was dismissed from his position as Chief of Staff, while Major General Abdelhakim Meraghni lost his job as Deputy Commander of the 5th Military Region.
Their replacement by General Smain Chouabna at the head of the 4th Region and by Major General Djaffar Oukid at the 5th illustrates a chain of command in perpetual change.
In the same series of decisions, the Director of National Service, Major General Benaissa Hammadi was replaced by General Mohammed Cherif Hafsi.
This position, though administrative, is not immune to the abrupt adjustments regularly imposed by the Presidency, to the point of becoming an indirect barometer of internal tensions.
This latest wave of dismissals comes amid growing scrutiny of military governance in Algeria.
Repeated changes to the command structure, without clear explanations of their rationale, stand in stark contrast to the stability displayed by other countries in the region, notably Morocco, whose security governance reforms and institutional coherence are regularly praised by its international partners.
These movements within the Algerian army, far from being exceptional, are part of a pattern of purges and repositioning that has been occurring for several years, reinforcing the image of a military system focused on internal control rather than operational efficiency.
MK/ak/Sf/fss/as/APA