In 2022 and 2023, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised African nations $97 billion worth of investment in ports, energy, mining, agriculture, communications, manufacturing, real estate, and more. These commitments made the UAE the largest funder of new projects in Africa, and if it continues to invest at this rate, its portfolio on the continent will soon be larger than China’s.

Not everyone has welcomed the Emirati largesse, however. In addition to cutting ribbons at Zambian solar fields and Egyptian tourist destinations, the UAE is flexing its muscles in war-torn Sudan and the breakaway state of Somali-land, two sites of proxy battles between rival African nations and Gulf states.

When the Emiratis arrived in Berbera, Somaliland, in 2016, they brought $442 million for a state-of-the-art container port. Last year, they returned to break ground on a more ominous and secretive project: a military base for their forces as well as those of the United States and Israel, which became the first country to officially recognize Somaliland in 2025. For the UAE, Somaliland’s leading foreign investor, the base offers a way to project power in nearby Yemen, where a Saudi-backed government counteroffensive crushed the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council earlier this year. Israel will have its sights trained on Yemen’s Houthis and may be dreaming of resettling Gazans in Somaliland. Meanwhile, the United States is eager to replace its base in Djibouti, which also allowed China to establish a base in the country and forbids US troops from using its territory to launch strikes in Yemen.