In brief
- On 22 May 2016, Somaliland Sun reported that Ethiopia welcomed a DP World agreement to invest US$442 million in Somaliland and to manage the Berbera port.
- The figure was attributed to an unnamed senior Ethiopian government official; no agreement, contract or award notice is cited.
- The report does not establish any development after 2016-05-22: no start of construction or dredging, no financing drawdown and no operational change at Berbera.
On 22 May 2016, Somaliland Sun reported that Ethiopia had welcomed an agreement in which DP World would invest in Somaliland and manage the port of Berbera. The report attributed a figure of US$442 million to a senior Ethiopian government official whom it did not name, and it cited no agreement, contract, concession document or award notice for that amount. Somaliland Sun also reported that DP World had signed an agreement with the Government of Somaliland to invest and manage the port, and that Berbera is under concession for 30 years. No document is cited for the concession term, the agreement's scope, its signatories or its signing date.
The same report described Berbera as located 937 km east of Addis Ababa and as having only five berths. It reported that nearly 98 percent of Ethiopia's import and export cargo goes through ports in Djibouti and that less than two percent, largely food aid, comes through Berbera. Those shares were not presented by Somaliland Sun as precise statistics, and the article names no source or document for the distance, the berth count or the cargo shares.
What Ethiopian officials and an industry body said
Ethiopia's Minister of Transport, Werqneh Gebeyehu, was quoted by Somaliland Sun saying, "We are better off having the UAE investing in Somaliland than in Eritrea," and adding, "We would not like to see any investment going to Eritrea, and we welcome the agreement DP World has now signed with Somaliland." The remarks are his, as reported by Somaliland Sun.
Mulugeta Assefa, president of the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders & Shipping Association, was also quoted by Somaliland Sun: "Certainly, we need alternative ports other than those in Eritrea." That is an industry association position, not a government statement.
The report placed the welcome against an earlier episode, which it attributed to what it described as "Eritrea press" and which is not independently verified. Somaliland Sun reported that three months earlier Eritrea had accepted a Western request to use its ports to move relief for 20 million starving Ethiopians, and that the Ethiopian government rejected the offer. It also reported that Ethiopia sent senior officials to the United Arab Emirates in October 2015 to raise concerns over DP World's prospects in Assab, Eritrea. No named official, ministry statement or document establishes those events. Somaliland Sun further described the road infrastructure linking mainland Ethiopia to Berbera as poor, a qualitative description rather than an engineering assessment.
What the 2016 report does not establish
Nothing in the report establishes what happened after 2016-05-22. It does not say the agreement was implemented, that construction or dredging began, that equipment or financing arrived, or that the port was expanded or completed. It gives no start date for any of those steps and no completion date. It does not establish that Ethiopia uses Berbera now, or that Ethiopia's reliance on Djibouti's ports has changed since. The five berths are a description of the port as of the report, not a measure of its throughput or capacity performance.
Frequently asked questions
What did Ethiopian officials say about the agreement?
Ethiopia's Minister of Transport, Werqneh Gebeyehu, was quoted by Somaliland Sun on 2016-05-22 saying Ethiopia is better off with UAE investment in Somaliland than in Eritrea and welcoming the agreement DP World had signed with Somaliland. Mulugeta Assefa, president of the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders & Shipping Association, separately said Ethiopia needs alternative ports other than those in Eritrea, an industry association position.
Does the 2016 report show an Ethiopian investment or usage commitment at Berbera?
It does not. Somaliland Sun reported that Ethiopia welcomed the agreement and quoted official and industry remarks. It cites no Ethiopian financing, no cargo commitment and no agreement document. The US$442 million figure was attributed to an unnamed senior Ethiopian government official as an amount DP World agreed to invest.
What does the report say about regional trade routes?
Somaliland Sun reported that nearly 98 percent of Ethiopia's import and export cargo goes through ports in Djibouti and that less than two percent, largely food aid, comes through Berbera. It described Berbera as 937 km east of Addis Ababa and as having only five berths. The article names no source for those figures, and they are not presented as exact statistics.