UAE to build new port on Sudanese Red Sea coast
June 20, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese businessman revealed on Monday that he and the United Arab Emirates will build a new port on the Red Sea in Sudan, as part of a $6 billion investment project, Reuters reported on Monday.
The head of DAL Group Osama Daoud Abdel Latif said that the joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Ports Group includes a free trade zone, a large agricultural project and a deposit of $300 million for the Central Bank of Sudan.
The announcement of this project comes at a time when international donors suspended financial assistance and investments worth billions of dollars to Sudan to compel the coup leaders to restore civilian rule and support the democratic transition process in the country.
The United Arab Emirates is part of an international quartet including Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States supporting the restoration of the civilian-led transition in Sudan.
The new private port, which costs $4 billion, would be able to handle all kinds of goods and compete with the country’s main national port, Port Sudan, according to the Sudanese tycoon.
He did not name the area where the project would be established but indicated it is located about 200 kilometres north of Port Sudan.
Also, it will include free trade and an industrial zone similar to Jebel Ali of Dubai, and a small international airport.
He pointed out that the project is in “advanced stages” with the completion of studies and designs.
There are no further details about when the deal was sealed.
Activists in social media stressed the absence of transparency in this big deal.
On June 15, Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim told Reuters that his government signed an agreement with the UAE for a large agricultural project linked by a road to a new port to be built on the Red Sea.
However, Ibrahim did not provide further details about the project.
“whatever international financial blockade there was on Sudan’s military has been broken,” said Cameron Hudson, a CSISA Senior Associate for African, in a tweet on Monday about this development.
He went further to say that this deal is like “a thumb in the eye of U.S. and international efforts to prevent the junta from getting a financial lifeline before political talks could conclude”.
(ST)