UK co-owns UAE-controlled Somaliland port used against Sudan

The UK government reportedly co-owns a strategic port controlled by the UAE in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which is part of a network of Emirati infrastructure used to supply weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that are committing genocide in Sudan.

The United Kingdom’s share in the Port of Berbera is held through the government’s foreign investment arm, British International Investment (BII), which jointly owns the Horn of Africa port with the UAE’s logistics behemoth DP World and the so-called Government of Somaliland.

This is while the UK’s partnership with DP World in Berbera port appears to raise questions about a possible conflict of interest between its commercial activities and its diplomatic gesture as to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, where the UAE is arming the RSF against the Sudanese government.

The UK, like the United States and the European Union, has imposed sanctions on RSF commanders “suspected of atrocities including mass killings, sexual violence, and deliberate attacks on civilians in El Fasher, Sudan.”

While the UAE continues to deny supplying the paramilitary group, which is led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – better known as Hemedti, evidence, including flight tracking, cargo inventories and multiple official sources in Sudan and beyond, is mounting that the Persian Gulf country is chiefly involved in the Sudan war.

According to diplomatic sources, Abu Dhabi has used what US President Donald Trump has labeled as its “unlimited cash” to exert pressure on London not to call out its role in the Sudan crisis.

British-built military equipment exported to the UAE has been uncovered in Sudan on multiple occasions, and Britain’s extensive commercial relations with the Emirates are under growing inspection.

Experts maintain that Berbera port forms part of a chain of Emirati-owned infrastructure that stretches across the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

“The UK cannot credibly call for a ceasefire, accountability, and civilian protection in Sudan while tolerating or participating in regional arrangements that keep armed actors liquid, mobile, and insulated from pressure,” Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, director of Sudanese public policy organization Fikra, said.

A spokesperson for BII claimd it was a minority investor in Berbera’s commercial port, adding that the port was “entirely unconnected” to nearby Emirati military facilities.

BII joined DP World Berbera and the Somaliland as a minority investor in the expansion of the Port of Berbera in early 2022.

The measure was part of a broader partnership with DP World, known as Africa Gateway, to purportedly “support the modernization and expansion of ports and inland logistics across Africa and to improve African trade with the rest of the world.”

The UK and the UAE have other complementary business interests in Somaliland. Both the UK-listed firm Genel Energy and the UAE’s RakGas have licenses to drill for crude oil in the territory, with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Irro recently saying that drilling for oil is expected to begin by 2027.

Somaliland is currently at the center of a diplomatic controversy after the Israeli regiome recognized its independence from Mogadishu on December 26. The move drew widespread international condemnations.

Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has raised speculations that Ethiopia could be poised to do the same. Just prior to the highly controversial move, a high-level Ethiopian delegation visited Berbera port and the adjacent Berbera Economic Free Zone.

A few days later, Ethiopia’s foreign minister refused to answer questions about whether his country would follow Israel in recognizing Somaliland.

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