In April 2019, DP World said it was finishing a feasibility study for a regional logistics hub centered on Somaliland’s Port of Berbera, with Ethiopia as a prime hinterland target while Addis talked logistics privatization.
The Reporter Ethiopia quoted Suhail Al Banna on a three-month study window looking at Dire Dawa, Jigjiga, and the Berbera corridor as a Red Sea bridge toward Europe and Asia. DP World had already commissioned mobile harbor cranes in Berbera and held a joint-venture stake with Somaliland and Ethiopia (51/30/19).
The pitch was familiar: cut Ethiopia’s dependence on a single Djibouti artery, speed TEU turns, and build free-zone trade. The politics were harder: Somaliland’s status, UAE capital, and Ethiopian federal bargains with Somali Region towns.
For Red Sea readers, the 2019 DP World file still frames later port fights. Logistics corridors are never only cranes and TEUs. They are sovereignty, rent, and who controls the road from the sea to the Ethiopian plateau.
Sources: The Reporter Ethiopia
