The British government co-owns a UAE-controlled port in Somaliland that is part of a network of Emirati infrastructure used to arm the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accused of committing atrocities in Sudan.
The UK’s stake in Berbera port is held through the government’s foreign investment arm, British International Investment (BII), which jointly owns the strategic Horn of Africa port with the UAE’s logistics behemoth DP World and the Government of Somaliland.
Somaliland, a former British colony, is a breakaway region of Somalia that is currently at the centre of a diplomatic controversy after Israel last month became the only country in the world to recognise its independence from Mogadishu in a move that has drawn widespread international condemnation.
An impact assessment report of BII’s investment in Berbera, commissioned by the UK foreign office and published last month, described Berbera as “a strategic gateway to Somaliland and a potential alternative trade corridor for Ethiopia”.
But 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 posturing on the war in Sudan, where the UAE is accused of supporting the RSF against the Sudanese government.
