Egypt finalises deal to develop Djibouti's port in bid to pressure Ethiopia over Nile dam

Deputy Prime Minister Kamel El Wazir seals the deal during a visit to the Horn of Africa nation

The Doraleh port in Djibouti City, the capital of Djibouti. Xinhua via AFP

Egypt's Deputy Prime Minister Kamel El Wazir concluded a milestone visit to Djibouti this week, where he finalised a deal to develop the Doraleh port on the Gulf of Aden.

The Egyptian government's announcement of the deal follows a report by The National last week that Cairo has reached agreements to develop ports in Djibouti and neighbouring Eritrea to increase pressure on landlocked Ethiopia in their dispute over Nile waters.

Under those agreements, Egypt will upgrade Doraleh and Eritrea's strategic Red Sea port of Assab to increase their capacity and create berths for warships, and the scope to post small but elite military contingents, sources in Cairo told The National.

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Both ports lie near the Bab Al Mandeb strait, which is the southern gate to the Red Sea. Ethiopia, landlocked since Eritrea seceded in 1993 after a long civil war, relies heavily on Doraleh for trade.

Egypt's Transport Ministry, which Mr El Wazir leads, said his visit was made "within the framework of Egypt's focus on expanding its pivotal role in the Horn of Africa region, in which Djibouti is one of its key pillars given its unique geographical location and its central role in maintaining the security of the Red Sea".

Mr El Wazir was accompanied to Djibouti by representatives of several Egyptian infrastructure companies, including at least one that specialises in ports, according to the ministry's statement.

It said companies from Djibouti and Egypt struck a partnership to develop Doraleh port, including building a solar power station and a logistics centre to serve international shipping. The statement gave no further details.

The statement made no mention of Egypt's plans to upgrade a road network leading to Doraleh, an undertaking reported by the sources in Cairo who spoke to The National last week.

Egypt has more than 2,000km of Red Sea coastline on its mainland and the Sinai Peninsula. It has repeatedly voiced strong opposition to landlocked nations such as Ethiopia gaining a territorial foothold on the Red Sea, the main maritime link between Europe, the Middle East, Asia and East Africa.

The discreet signing of Egypt's agreement with Eritrea took place during a visit to Cairo by President Isaias Afwerki in late October, according to the sources. The deal with Djibouti, which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi visited in April, was negotiated by senior Egyptian and Djibouti officials, they said.

Egypt, already bound to Eritrea and Djibouti by strong political and military ties, will build infrastructure at the two ports to refuel and resupply warships from its southern fleet, including destroyers, submarines, and troop and helicopter carriers, the sources said.

The Nile snakes through Cairo. AP

Egypt and Ethiopia have been locked in a bitter dispute for more than a decade over the anticipated effects of a vast hydroelectric dam that Addis Ababa completed this year.

Egypt, which relies on the Nile for nearly all of its freshwater needs, regards the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as an existential threat, saying it will reduce its vital share of the river's water and give Ethiopia unacceptable control over its downstream flow at times of drought.

Egypt and Sudan negotiated for more than a decade, without success, for Ethiopia to enter into a legally binding agreement on the operation and management of the dam.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at an African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in 2019. Photo: Egyptian Presidency

Ethiopia has repeatedly reassured both countries that the dam will not harm their interests, while emphasising the project's benefits for economic development and its sovereign right to operate it as it sees fit.

The gradual filling of the vast reservoir behind the dam, which took place from 2020 to last year, had little effect on Egypt's share of Nile water, thanks to abundant rain on the Ethiopian highlands.

However, war-torn Sudan, which is directly downstream, has complained that Ethiopia's failure to share real-time data on the dam's operation has caused deadly and destructive flooding in some of its regions.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam during the official inauguration ceremony in Guba, on September 9. AFP

Since the last round of failed negotiations two years ago, Egypt has been building up alliances and trust with Ethiopia's neighbours such as Somalia, Djibouti – both members of the Arab League – Eritrea and Kenya, while offering technical expertise in a wide range of fields to many of the 11 Nile Basin nations.

Last year, Egypt began posting troops and military advisers in Somalia after the two nations signed a defence agreement. Egypt also provided Somalia with weapons and counter-terrorism advisers to aid its fight against Al Shabab terrorist group. It also intends to take part in a new AU peacekeeping mission in the country.