The Somali government cancelled all agreements with the United Arab Emirates on Monday, ejecting the Gulf power from military bases and major infrastructure as tensions in the Red Sea soar.
According to a senior Somali government source and a document seen by Middle East Eye, the move by the Mogadishu government includes all agreements with government agencies, related entities and regional administrations.
“This decision applies to all agreements and cooperation in the ports of Berbera, Bosaso, and Kismayo,” the document reads.
“The Council of Ministers has also terminated all existing agreements between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Government of the United Arab Emirates, including bilateral security and defence cooperation agreements,” it added.
“This decision is in response to reports and strong evidence of serious steps being taken to undermine the sovereignty, national unity, and political independence of the country.”
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Many Somalis have already praised the government’s decision on social media, with the journalist Isahaq Elmi saying: “It’s a step in the right direction. Somalia has no worse enemy than the UAE.”
Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, president of Somalia between 2017 and 2022, also welcomed the decision. There was no immediate comment from the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, Middle East Eye reported that the UAE was removing its military from bases across Somalia including Bosaso, a city in the Puntland region that hosts an Emirati base from which supplies have been sent to the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in Sudan.
“Based on the information available to us, they have been evacuating their security personnel and military equipment to neighbouring Ethiopia,” a senior Somali official told MEE.
Israel, the UAE and Somalia
Questions of Somali sovereignty and territorial integrity have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks, with the UAE and its regional ally Israel growing ever closer to Somaliland, a breakway region of Somalia that has its own government.
On 26 December, Israel became the first country in the world to formally recognise the sovereignty of Somaliland, where the strategically vital port city of Berbera, on the Gulf of Aden coast, is situated.
One of the ports named in the Somali government document, Berbera has been at the centre of a number of dramatic, intersecting news stories in the last week.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar went to the city as part of a first official Israeli visit to Somaliland last Tuesday following its formal recognition. During his trip, Saar declared that “unlike ‘Palestine’, Somaliland is not a virtual state,” and referred to the former British colony as “pro-western and friendly to Israel”.
Talks between Israel and Somaliland, which has its own government, have included discussions about a proposed Israeli military base at Berbera, which is already part of a ring of bases in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden controlled by the UAE.
UAE removing its military from Bosaso after angry Somalia ends agreement
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Then on Thursday last week, a ship carrying Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the Yemeni southern separatist leader backed by the UAE, docked in Berbera.
Saudi Arabia then accused the UAE, a nominal ally it has rising tensions with, of spiriting Zubaidi out of Yemen to Abu Dhabi via the Somaliland port.
The UAE’s relationship with Somaliland, which is seeking to formally separate from Somalia, dates back to 2017, when the government of Somaliland accepted an Emirati bid to establish a military base there, hoping that this relationship would strengthen its case for independence.
Satellite imagery analysed by MEE shows that in Berbera, this Emirati naval base has been quietly transformed from a stalled project to a nearly completed facility, with advanced infrastructure including a modern military port, a deep-water dock, an airstrip with hangars and support facilities.
The runway at Berbera is 4km long – one of the longest in Africa, owing in part to the fact that it was once rented by Nasa as a potential emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttle – meaning it can receive heavy transport aircraft and fighter jets.
The port at Berbera, which has been greatly expanded since 2022, is jointly owned by DP World, the UAE’s maritime logistics behemouth, the government of Somaliland and the British government, which is a minority investor through its foreign investment arm, British International Investment (BII).
