Berbera Port in Somaliland is using about 30 percent of its expanded capacity, a senior official at DP World, the Dubai company that runs it, told Middle East Eye.
Jama Mohamed Ahmed, DP World’s commercial director for the Horn of Africa, gave the figure in remarks Somalia Today reported on September 22, after hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to make Berbera a main entry point for Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.
Ahmed said the port has not drawn the Ethiopian trade hoped for when DP World raised its yearly container limit to 500,000 twenty-foot containers, alongside about two million tonnes of general, bulk and break-bulk cargo.
Figures from Ethiopia’s transport ministry show that almost all sea trade still goes through Djibouti. Birr Metrics reported on August 27 that the sector moved 17.57 million metric tonnes of import and export cargo in the 2025/26 financial year. State Minister for Transport and Logistics Denge Boru released the figures, Birr Metrics said. The Port of Djibouti handled 96.71 percent of cargo through sea gates, about 15.34 million tonnes. Berbera took 2.74 percent. Tadjoura took 1.23 percent. The Mombasa to Moyale route took 0.56 percent. Those four shares add to more than 100 percent. Imports were 15.93 million tonnes. Exports were 1.64 million tonnes.
Road trucks carried 14.08 million tonnes, about 80 percent of freight, and the Ethio-Djibouti railway carried 3.32 million tonnes, while air cargo made up the rest at 164,781 tonnes, or 0.94 percent.
DP World runs Berbera under a long lease and has pledged up to $442 million to build and expand it. The company said in 2021 that the first phase raised yearly container space from 150,000 to 500,000 twenty-foot containers, and that a planned second phase would lengthen the quay and raise the limit to as many as two million.
DP World has also built the Berbera Economic Zone and backs a road link from the port to the Ethiopian border. In 2021 it signed a deal with Ethiopia’s transport ministry to study the Ethiopian side of the road, when the partners planned up to $1 billion over ten years for dry ports, warehouses and container yards.
During a visit by Middle East Eye, Russian grain was readied for travel to Ethiopia and South Sudan. Boxes from China bound for Egypt were moved between ships. Workers unloaded sugar from India and timber from Malaysia for sale in Somaliland. “All the infrastructure is here. It’s only a matter of time,” Ahmed told Middle East Eye.
Somalia Today said the remarks came eight months after the federal government of Somalia ended all deals with the United Arab Emirates. The deals covered the ports of Berbera, Bosaso and Kismayo. Mogadishu said the step, taken on January 12, answered violations of Somalia’s sovereignty. Puntland, Jubaland and Somaliland rejected the federal step. They said their deals with the UAE stay in force.
Ethiopia’s January 2024 memorandum of understanding with Somaliland on coastal access caused a row with Mogadishu that Turkey helped settle through the Ankara Declaration in December 2024.
Ahmed Abdi, a geopolitical analyst based in Mogadishu, told Somalia Today that the 30 percent figure backs his view. He said the UAE took control of Berbera and Bosaso to hold back rivals to its own Jebel Ali port. Somalia Today said that view is Abdi’s. DP World says its Berbera spending will grow trade in the region. It says Ethiopia and other Horn markets will gain a second sea entry point.
Al Jazeera reported on September 13 that Houthi forces had taken Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The coast includes Mokha and Mayyun (Perim). It cited data from IMF PortWatch. The data show Red Sea ship volume and tonnage fell 50 to 55 percent from 2023 to 2025. Al Jazeera said large shipping firms still send ships around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The detour adds more than 20 days in travel.
In the same release reported by Birr Metrics, Ethiopia’s transport ministry listed the chief problems for the sector. They are security fears in the region, higher freight fees, shaky world shipping and strain on transit roads. The 30 percent figure has not been checked against Ethiopia’s customs records.
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