Emirates to operate Sudanese port in the Red Sea

A consortium of companies from the United Arab Emirates has concluded a preliminary agreement with the military government of Sudan to operate the Red Sea port of Abu Amama. The strategic enclave will house the second port area of the country after Port Sudan, an infrastructure that has been in decline in recent months due to the deep internal crisis. The Gulf state thus strengthens its influence in Sudanese politics at a time when the transition to civilian rule is beginning for the second time. 

The consortium of Abu Dhabi Ports Group, owned by the Abudabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, and Invictus Investment Company PLC, managed by the DAL Group, Sudan's largest business conglomerate, had been negotiating for months on a deal that was made public on Tuesday by the state news agency SANA. The project was an open secret. Sudanese tycoon Osama Daoud Abdellatif, owner of Invictus Investment, revealed the terms of the deal, by then "at an advanced stage", to Reuters in June. 

Sudanese Finance Minister Ibrahim Gibril and Abdellatif signed a document that will allow the Emirati companies to "directly develop, manage and operate certain port and economic zone assets, as well as to create joint ventures, partnerships or other commercial arrangements to support the financing, development, construction, management and operation of the projects," the consortium statement said.

The deal includes another contract to operate a $1.6 billion agricultural zone in the city of Abu Hamad, located in the contiguous Nile River State, as well as the construction of a 500-kilometre toll road costing up to $450 million to be paid for by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the project's main financier. It would connect Abu Hamad with the port infrastructure of Abu Amama. 

But that is not all. The Emirati business conglomerate has committed to equipping the port with state-of-the-art technology. Industrial, tourist and residential areas as well as an international airport and a power plant will be built around Abu Amama. Investments would exceed 6 billion dollars. With this ambitious project, the Emirates intends to copy the successful model of Jebel Ali in Dubai, the largest man-made port in the world and the busiest in the region, inaugurated in 1979 and expanded at the beginning of the century. 

Present at the signing ceremony was General Ibrahim Jabir representing the Sovereign Council, the body that controls Sudan since 2019. Neither Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the self-proclaimed president after the military uprising that toppled autocrat Omar Hassan al-Bashir, nor the controversial Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, the country's strongmen backed by the UAE and its Gulf partners, were present.

The terms of the deal were reportedly finalised by al-Burhan himself and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed after the Sudanese military leader's latest trip to the Gulf country, according to Reuters. Abdellatif, for his part, claims that negotiations regarding the port of Abu Amama began in July 2021, three months before the military coup that ended the civilian transition led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. 

The announcement has raised adverse reactions among the political opposition and the civilian population. It is not the first time. Workers denounce the sale of national strategic industries and, above all, the interference of the United Arab Emirates in internal affairs. Last March, a group of demonstrators blocked access to Port Sudan on the occasion of a visit by Hemedti, who was quick to deny that the port infrastructure would not be privatised, let alone fall into Emirati hands. The project was not there, but 200 kilometres to the north. 

It is not the only contract on the table offered by Abu Dhabi. The same Emirati business conglomerate has submitted another bid for control of the country's largest telecommunications company, Zain Sudan.

Following the overthrow of Islamist Omar al-Bashir after more than three decades in power, Gulf countries pledged to inject billions of dollars into Sudan's ailing accounts. The United Arab Emirates then became one of the country's main investors, and forged closer ties with the Sudanese armed forces leaders who had promoted the fall of the former president. In 2020, Sudan's exports to the UAE amounted to $1.86 billion. 

"The transition has caused neighbouring states to try to get a government to their liking, especially the broad alliance of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These countries do not like the Islamist presence in the coup government, but see the military as the least bad option, and certainly preferable to a democratic transition," writes Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, former deputy chief of staff to former civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was deposed in the midst of the political transition by the military, in the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

"Islamist influence is once again visible throughout the public administration, especially in the prosecutor's office, the foreign service, the police and, above all, the judiciary. Since the coup, court decisions have handed over many previously confiscated assets to the Islamists," Amgad adds. This scenario has pushed Abu Dhabi to readjust its interests.

The UAE has successfully lobbied Sudanese political actors to unblock the crisis within the framework of the Quad, a US-led group that also includes Saudi Arabia and the UK. For the time being, the mechanism has succeeded in bringing the army and a coalition of pro-democracy civilian platforms to the negotiating table. They are negotiating the content of an agreement to withdraw the military from the government. On 5 December, they announced a first step in this direction, but there is still some scepticism. No one believes that the uniformed forces will relinquish command.