Berbera

However, while Turkey and Somalia have been working on the maritime deal for some time, recent events have affected its timing.

Just a month earlier, Ethiopia and Somaliland signed a memorandum of understanding under which Ethiopia gets a 50-year lease on a strip of land on Somaliland's coast for naval and commercial maritime use and access to the Berbera port.

Turkey and Ethiopia have close economic and military ties but the latter's encroachment on Somaliland, which is considered worldwide to be part of Somalia, could have repercussions that harm Turkish-Ethiopian relations in the future.

Sovereignty lies at the heart of the dispute over the recent agreement with Somaliland.

In exchange for the Berbera port deal, Ethiopia is considering recognizing the independence of the separatist Somaliland, if it hasn't already de facto.

Doing so openly, however, could impact the region's stability.

For one, it sets a dangerous precedent.

However, the Emiratis do not see eye to eye with their Turkish counterparts.

Uh, but also Somaliland is exercising who they wanna be a friend with, um, who they want to friend with and how they wanna be friendship or partnership with them.

Actually, uh, President Ira a couple of times mentioned that they are looking a security, uh, agreement with Israel and US that will bring, you know, basically that, uh, Berbera Port base in place with the discussion.

How they will be using it, what will be the parameters around it, I think it will be in light with the, the interests of Somaliland and Israel when they look at it in depth.

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The, leading up to it, this is kind of what I've been able to put together.

Um, the UAE has been investing in Somaliland for several years, right, in the Berbera seaport.

And Israel has actually been involved in a while quietly, right? And I've heard rumors that in order to help set up this port on the ground with Israeli technology and defense, the...

Abu Dhabi has invested heavily in port infrastructure across East Africa.

From Berbera in Somaliland to Assab in Eritrea to Yemen's Socotra Island, the UAE is all over the place.

Port Sudan would complete the chain and turn the Red Sea into an Emirati corridor, which would then give it considerable leverage over one of the world's most strategic maritime routes.

But there is more at stake than trade.

So that base is essentially useless.

Now, the United States has been, especially AFRICOM, has been in and out of Berbera, which is the port city that's right on the Red Sea, very close to Djibouti as well.

There's a facility that has been coming together for years, again, unknown.

A lot of people always say things.

and they are supporting, they're building ports in Somaliland.

So, Berbera port.

Hargeisa is the capital,

right? Hargeisa is the capital, which is where I lived.

says that consultants are a waste of money? Come back to Ethiopia.

If you think about, for example, the relationship with Ethiopia and Somaliland.

UAE is building a port in Berbera.

That is owned 51% by DP World, the UAE ports operator.

Then they're very easy to defend and it's very hard to push through.

So it would be easier for Ethiopia to get water access In Somaliland, so the port of Berbera on that map, where the O of Somaliland is, is the port of Berbera.

It's an existing deepwater port.

And the deal would be, we'll recognize Somaliland independence and support you because we got plenty of troops and modern fighter jets, everything.

He writes, external actors offering flexible resources moved into the resulting space, and the UAE brought capital, commercial projects, and logistical capacity to environments where Algeria had relied more heavily on geographic proximity and sovereign mediation.

In the Horn of Africa, Emirati investment in ports, aviation, and security infrastructure, including its long-standing role in Berbera, has created channels of influence that operate largely outside traditional diplomatic mediation.

Such relationships give Abu Dhabi practical access and leverage, even where formal political institutions are weak or fragmented.

Now Amin moves to explain the Abraham Accords and its role in the region, especially with Israel, and its role with the UAE and Algeria specifically.

Now UAE is in charge of that Red Sea route, and anything that goes through the Red Sea, UAE has to be involved in it, and it helps the UAE to expand its influence in Sudan, and allows it to use the Israelis to lobby the Americans to give it preferential treatment, and it allows the UAE to squeeze regional countries economically because it becomes the master of that Red Sea area.

Aden, Berbera, Yemen, Somaliland.

The UAE doesn't have a problem with the Houthis in the north.

This is what I mean in that when the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman got annoyed and furious that the UAE were trying to impose a solution on him by getting the southern separatists to declare independence, the Saudis responded by bombing the southerners, bombing the, the southern separatists, and saying to the UAE, "I am the boss of what happens in Yemen." UAE said, "Fine." They withdrew their, uh, proxies.

These are kind of, you know, mass shallow graves.

Um, it, it goes on to talk about eyewitness testimonies, documented mass executions by firing squad, forced disappearances, looting, mass torture, mass surveillance, rape used as a weapon, curfews, and mass killings of civilians, even in areas with limited resistance or lawful lib- uh, liberation movement activities, such in, uh, Berbera, where thousands of government soldiers, uh, were stationed.

Isaaq civilians across what was then the Somalia Republic were detained and executed en masse by Somali government execution squads led by colonels, and they say that like, uh, Ilhan Omar's father.

They don't, they don't have any direct evidence to suggest, or they don't have any direct evidence that Ilhan Omar's father, Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, participated in these activities, right? So I wanna be clear about that.