• NORTH AFRICA
• AFRICA IN 2026

Populist wins and big business deals cannot disguise tensions

Two of the region’s economies are diversifying with some success but are being outpaced by the demand for new jobs

North Africa in 2026 charts

Regimes and their propaganda machines can point to areas of progress in 2025 that should give North Africans grounds for hope of a better future: so why are governments in the Maghreb and Egypt looking on so nervously for signs of renewed popular discontent in 2026?

Algeria enters the new year with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s government boasting of a revived hydrocarbons sector and a more diversified non-oil economy. Regional rival Morocco is basking in an Africa Cup of Nations tournament played out in glitzy new stadia and served by a big infrastructure spend that will reach its peak when the kingdom co-hosts the 2030 Fifa World Cup that King Mohammed VI (‘M6’) has placed at the heart of a cannily populist development policy.

Neighbouring regimes in the moribund Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) may also claim a year of advances. Libya has ramped up its oil output to around a million barrels per day, while keeping a lid on outright civil war between Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dubaiba’s Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli and warlord Gen Khalifa Haftar’s forces based around Benghazi. Mauritania has built up solar energy and other infrastructure to an impressive extent, while investors have lined up to exploit natural resources that – Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM)’s iron ore reserves apart – have largely been ignored but are attracting ever more interest.

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