Background context for Berbera Times readers, updated periodically as developments occur.
What Berbera Port is
Berbera is Somaliland’s principal deep-water port on the Gulf of Aden, positioned close to one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors linking the Red Sea, Suez Canal and Indian Ocean. In 2016, Somaliland signed an agreement with Dubai-based DP World to develop and operate the port. DP World has since invested several hundred million dollars in expansion, including a new container terminal that opened in 2021 and the Berbera Economic Zone, a free-trade area near the port.
Ownership structure
Following a later agreement, ownership of the Berbera Port project was restructured with DP World holding 51 percent, Somaliland’s government holding 30 percent, and Ethiopia holding a 19 percent stake, reflecting Ethiopia’s status as a strategic partner and primary trade beneficiary.
Why it matters for Ethiopia
Landlocked Ethiopia currently routes roughly 90 percent of its maritime trade through Djibouti, at an estimated annual cost of more than $1.5 billion in port and transit fees. Berbera offers Ethiopia an alternative gateway; industry analysts have estimated it could reduce Ethiopia’s shipping costs by up to 30 percent on cargo routed through it. The Berbera Corridor, a road linking the port to the Ethiopian border and onward to Addis Ababa, has seen significant infrastructure investment, cutting transit times along the route by more than a third according to trade groups involved in the upgrades.
Growth so far
DP World reports that Berbera’s container handling capacity has more than tripled since it took over operations, and that ship turnaround times have fallen from roughly 64 hours in 2018 to about 25 hours in 2024. A direct shipping route now connects Berbera to the major transshipment hub of Jebel Ali in Dubai roughly every nine days.
Why it matters for Somaliland
Development finance institutions have projected that by 2035, port-related trade could equal nearly 27 percent of Somaliland’s GDP and support tens of thousands of jobs, making Berbera arguably the single most important economic asset in Somaliland’s push for development and international engagement.