Sudan’s government has signed a $6-billion agreement with a UAE consortium to construct a new port on the Red Sea.
The site earmarked for the new port is about 125 miles to the north of the country's only seaport, Port Sudan. The region, directly across the Red Sea from Jeddah and Saudi Arabia, which is a hub for shipping in and out of Sudan, has several protected inlets where the port could potentially be built. Vast stretches of desert border the location, while Port Sudan is the closest populous area.
Maritime Executive reports that developers plan to build a new 280-mile-long road to connect the new port up to Abu Hamad, a farming hub on the Nile River.
On Tuesday, Sudanese Finance Minister Gibreel Ibrahim announced that the remote site would be home to a special economic zone, an airport, a power station and a new road network.
“Under a preliminary agreement, Emirati government-owned Abu Dhabi Ports Group, and Sudan's Invictus Investment, will take up construction and management of the new seaport,” the publication reported.
Port Sudan has been hammered by disruption related to the country's complex political challenges over the past year. Civil unrest disrupted movements at the port, and earlier, road connections to and from the port were shut down by regional tribal connections to support a military coup in September 2021. The government hopes that the new alternative port will provide an alternative shipping option to alleviate some of these problems impacting the movement of cargo.
