{"id":2337,"date":"2026-09-13T12:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maritimebizreview.com\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2026-09-13T12:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:43:14","slug":"exclusive-analysis-eritreas-port-imperialism-charge-exposes-the-new-scramble-for-africas-coasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maritimebizreview.com\/?p=2337","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Analysis: Eritrea\u2019s \u201cPort Imperialism\u201d Charge Exposes the New Scramble for Africa\u2019s Coasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">When Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh accused the United Arab Emirates of pursuing \u201cport imperialism\u201d across Africa, he gave voice to a grievance long simmering along the Red Sea and in the Horn of Africa. \u201cThe UAE has port facilities everywhere in the region, and African countries have to ask why,\u201d Saleh told Middle East Eye. \u201cIs it just for economics? No.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Asmara, he added, has rejected Emirati efforts to deepen its footprint\u2014both commercial and military\u2014on Eritrean soil. These included a proposal for DP World to manage Eritrean ports and an earlier request for a shared UAE-Israeli military presence on an island in the Dahlak Archipelago.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The language is deliberately sharp. It frames Abu Dhabi\u2019s growing network of port concessions, free zones, and logistics corridors not as ordinary foreign investment, but as a systematic project of strategic control. The charge lands at a moment when the Horn is already fractured by overlapping rivalries: Ethiopia\u2019s quest for Red Sea access, Sudan\u2019s civil war, Somalia\u2019s sovereignty disputes with Somaliland and Puntland, and intensifying competition among Gulf states, Israel, Egypt, T\u00fcrkiye, China, and Western powers for influence over the world\u2019s most critical maritime chokepoints.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>From Commercial Logistics to Strategic Architecture<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">UAE operators DP World and AD Ports Group now hold stakes in or manage facilities across Egypt, Tanzania, Somaliland (Berbera), Puntland (Bosaso), Senegal, Mozambique, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. DP World\u2019s African portfolio alone stretches from Dakar and Ndayane in Senegal to Maputo, Dar es Salaam, and the contentious Berbera terminal. AD Ports has pursued terminals in Egypt, Congo, and Angola, and previously sought a $6 billion Red Sea port development in Sudan that Khartoum later cancelled.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">These are not isolated commercial deals. They form part of a deliberate effort to position the UAE as a global logistics hub linking Asia, Africa, and Europe, while securing access to African resources\u2014gold, minerals, agricultural produce\u2014and projecting power along critical sea lanes. The same infrastructure that moves containers can host naval vessels, drones, and intelligence assets. The UAE\u2019s former base at Eritrea\u2019s Assab port, used extensively for the Yemen campaign, illustrated this dual-use logic. When relations with Asmara cooled, operations shifted toward facilities in Somaliland and Puntland that combine commercial terminals with military-capable runways and docks.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Critics, including Eritrean officials and analysts writing in outlets such as the Financial Times and New Internationalist, describe this as the construction of a system rather than a portfolio: long-term concessions that create dependence, route trade through Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and give Abu Dhabi leverage over coastal states\u2019 economic and security choices. Gold flows, mineral offtake agreements, and support for preferred political or military actors\u2014notably the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan\u2014reinforce the pattern.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Eritrea\u2019s Refusal and the Regional Backlash<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Eritrea\u2019s stance is consistent with its long-standing insistence on sovereignty and non-alignment. Having hosted the Assab facility during the height of the Yemen war, Asmara later declined further Emirati hub ambitions. Saleh\u2019s comments underscore a broader rejection of any foreign power establishing a permanent \u201chub\u201d on Eritrean territory. The reported rejection of a joint UAE-Israeli island base years before the Abraham Accords is particularly revealing: it shows that concerns about external military presence predated the formal normalisation of UAE-Israel ties and were rooted in a desire to avoid becoming a platform for extra-regional agendas.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Similar pushback has occurred elsewhere. Djibouti terminated DP World\u2019s Doraleh concession in 2018, triggering prolonged legal battles. Sudan cancelled the AD Ports-linked Abu Amama project amid accusations of Emirati support for the RSF. Somalia\u2019s federal government has moved to annul security and commercial arrangements involving UAE-linked facilities in Berbera and Bosaso, citing interference in its sovereignty\u2014even as local authorities in Somaliland and Puntland have pursued closer ties. These disputes demonstrate that African governments are not passive recipients; they retain agency and are prepared to reverse deals when strategic costs become too high.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>The Geopolitics of the Red Sea and Horn<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The port strategy cannot be separated from the wider realignment of the Red Sea arena. The UAE has cultivated close ties with Ethiopia, supplying drones and other systems and supporting Addis Ababa\u2019s regional ambitions. Eritrea, by contrast, has drawn closer to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudanese Armed Forces. Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland and reported interest in facilities there further complicates the map, feeding Eritrean perceptions of a UAE-Israel-Ethiopia axis. Saleh\u2019s reference to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s \u201ctwo waters\u201d strategy\u2014from the Nile to the Red Sea\u2014captures the anxiety that landlocked Ethiopia, backed by Gulf and Israeli partners, could eventually pressure Eritrea\u2019s coastline.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Control of ports and adjacent airfields offers influence over Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden, routes through which a significant share of global trade and energy still passes. In an era of Houthi attacks, great-power competition, and supply-chain reconfiguration, such influence is invaluable. Yet it also risks turning African coastal states into arenas for external rivalries rather than masters of their own maritime destinies.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Investment or Imperialism? The Contested Framing<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Defenders of UAE policy argue that Africa desperately needs port modernisation. Many African terminals suffer from congestion, high costs, and underinvestment. Long-term concessions bring capital, technology, management expertise, and connectivity to global shipping networks. DP World and AD Ports point to capacity expansions, job creation, and logistics corridors that benefit hinterland economies, including Ethiopia\u2019s via Berbera. From this perspective, accusations of \u201cimperialism\u201d overlook African agency in negotiating deals and the commercial logic of integrating African trade into efficient global supply chains.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The counter-argument is that the terms and strategic overlay matter. Thirty-year concessions, exclusive rights, dual-use facilities, and the intertwining of commercial operators with state security policy create asymmetric relationships. When port operators are instruments of a highly centralised foreign policy that also backs specific factions in civil wars and cultivates recognition for breakaway entities, the line between investment and influence-building blurs. Eritrea\u2019s language of \u201cport imperialism\u201d deliberately evokes older patterns of coastal control by external powers\u2014British, French, Ottoman\u2014updated for an age of logistics empires rather than formal colonies.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">African states face a genuine dilemma. Capital and expertise are scarce; rejecting all external involvement would leave ports underdeveloped. Accepting deals without robust safeguards on sovereignty, local content, transparency, and exit clauses risks long-term dependency. The pattern of cancellations in Djibouti, Sudan, and Somalia suggests that governments are learning to recalibrate when the strategic price rises.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>What Comes Next<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Saleh\u2019s intervention is unlikely to reverse the UAE\u2019s African maritime presence, but it crystallises a growing debate. As Gulf capital, Chinese infrastructure, Turkish security partnerships, and Western development finance compete across the continent, African governments will increasingly demand clearer terms and greater control. For the UAE, the challenge is to demonstrate that its port network delivers mutual benefit rather than hierarchical influence\u2014particularly as relations with Saudi Arabia remain strained and its regional partners face domestic and international scrutiny.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Red Sea and Horn of Africa are too strategically vital, and African sovereignty too hard-won, for external powers to treat coastal infrastructure as a private domain. Eritrea\u2019s accusation forces a necessary conversation: when does commercial presence become strategic dominance, and who decides? African states that ask that question\u2014and act on the answers\u2014will shape the next chapter of the continent\u2019s maritime history far more than any single investor.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh accused the United Arab Emirates of pursuing \u201cport imperialism\u201d across Africa, he gave voice to a grievance long simmering along the Red Sea and in the Horn of Africa. \u201cThe UAE has port facilities everywhere in the region, and African countries have to ask why,\u201d Saleh told Middle East [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geopolitics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized 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