Eritrea has launched a sharp diplomatic critique against the United Arab Emirates, accusing Abu Dhabi of engaging in “port imperialism” across the African continent. In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh raised pointed questions regarding the rapid proliferation of Emirati-managed maritime infrastructure in strategic locations throughout East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea basin.
The core of Asmara’s grievance centers on the true intent behind the aggressive expansion of Emirati state-backed entities. Major operators such as DP World and AD Ports Group currently maintain ownership stakes, management contracts, or concession agreements across a diverse footprint of strategic locations, including Egypt, Tanzania, Somaliland, and Puntland. While these investments are frequently framed in commercial and developmental terms, Saleh argued that economic rationale alone fails to account for the strategic scope of the footprint.
“The UAE has port facilities everywhere in the region, and African countries have to ask why,” Saleh told Middle East Eye. Challenging the narrative of purely market-driven logistics, he explicitly rejected the notion that the network serves economic ends exclusively, pointing instead toward broader geopolitical ambitions.
This expansion has not been without friction across the wider region. The UAE’s aggressive port strategy has previously encountered significant sovereignty pushback and regulatory setbacks. Most notably, Djibouti canceled DP World’s concession to operate the Doraleh Container Terminal in 2018 following a bitter legal and political dispute. More recently, Sudan terminated a 2022 agreement that would have seen Emirati entities develop a proposed six billion dollar Red Sea port project.
Eritrea itself has actively resisted integration into this expanding maritime network. Saleh revealed that Asmara rebuffed a direct approach by the UAE around 2016 seeking to establish a military base on an island within the strategic Dahlak Archipelago, situated off the Eritrean coast in the Red Sea. Underscoring his government’s strict stance on national sovereignty, Saleh added that Asmara deliberately blocked DP World from operating within its borders, maintaining a firm policy against hosting foreign military hubs or external logistical choke points.
Beyond maritime infrastructure, Eritrean officials voiced deep apprehension regarding what they characterized as a deepening strategic convergence between the UAE and Israel within the Horn of Africa. Asmara views this alignment as a destabilizing force, particularly regarding its intersection with regional dynamics involving Ethiopia and the self-declared state of Somaliland.
Saleh explicitly tied these geopolitical anxieties to Addis Ababa’s persistent, renewed pursuit of direct sovereign access to the Red Sea, alongside its rapidly strengthening diplomatic and economic partnership with Abu Dhabi. Furthermore, Asmara warned that coordinated diplomatic or logistical maneuvers by Israel and the UAE in territories such as Somaliland threaten to alter the regional balance of power, raising the security stakes for littoral states like Eritrea that command vital shipping lanes.
The sharp rhetoric from Asmara highlights the intensifying competition for maritime and geopolitical dominance along some of the world’s most critical commercial shipping routes.
