Monday 24 February 2025 
Academicians and specialists in the military field affirmed, Thursday in Algiers, that the celebration of the National Day of the People’s National Army (ANP) conveys great meanings linked in particular to the role of the army in the construction and sustainability of the Algerian state.
During a conference under the theme “The ANP: from liberation to national construction”, held at the headquarters of the Algerian Radio on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day of the ANP, coinciding with the August 4 of each year, the professor of Political Science and International Relations, M’hand Berkouk highlighted the role of the ANP in the construction and the perpetuation of the Algerian State, recalling that “the first mission of the army was to preserve the gains made during the War of Liberation”.
On the strategic level, he explained, the ANP is “the unifier of the various components of the nation”, in view of the “strategic missions which have been entrusted to it since 1962, namely: national defense and security , in addition to contributing to the achievement of development and the establishment of solidarity within society”.
The ANP is experiencing “an upward trajectory to become, in the coming years, one of the largest armies in the world, thanks to the superior and unique training it provides to its executives”, he argued.
For his part, the professor of International Relations at the University of Algiers 3, Ahmed Adhimi recalled the role played by the ANP during the War of the Sands in 1963 or even during the dark decade in the face of terrorism, contributing during the years embers to “the sedentarization of populations”.
Speaking on the same occasion, Lieutenant Colonel Amer Chine, of the Directorate of Information and Communication at the General Staff of the PNA, explained that the army had succeeded, after independence, to “bear the burden of the socio-economic problems inherited from the French colonizer”.
The ANP was, at the time, “the only organized power in the country and which contributed to the construction of the Algerian State through the construction of roads, like the road of African unity , but also to the construction of the green dam, the demining of large areas and the care of widows and orphans”.
Lieutenant Colonel Ali Boucherba, from the same direction, described the ANP’s mission after 1962 as “rough and important” at the same time, particularly in terms of mine clearance, specifying that in 2016 it succeeded in the destruction of 9 million mines and the clearing of 62,000 ha of borders in the east and west of the country.
The ANP has also distinguished itself, he added, for “its high availability in the fight against terrorism and the prevention of the country’s economy from looting and illicit trafficking”.
The combat readiness of the ANP “emanates from a successful strategy and approach of the command, based on the modernization of weapons, the continuous preparation for combat of the various units of the army by focusing on a human resource aware and aware of the various issues to be taken up”, he concluded.