The New Investment Superpower Outflanking China and the U.S. in Africa
The United Arab Emirates has poured billions of dollars into mines, ports and other projects
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mine owned by Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia. Last year, a U.A.E.-based
company outbid a Chinese firm for a stake in the company. WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG
Nov. 6, 2024
KAMPALA, Uganda—Across the world, the U.S., China and Russia are rubbing up against each other as Beijing and Moscow try to establish a new international order. The tiny United Arab Emirates is looking closer to home.
The petrostate has invested billions of dollars on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, in Africa, where it is now emerging as a significant player, at times muscling out China and annoying the U.S. and others. It has taken sides in local wars and spent heavily on buying farmland, ports and other projects that could help reduce its own dependence on oil in the decades to come.
Plenty of countries appear eager for its largess. When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni handed out military medals earlier this year, the highest honor, the Distinguished Order of the Crested Crane, First Class, went to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, a senior member of the U.A.E’s royal family, and the first ever foreigner to receive it.
“Uganda has become my second home,” Mohammed said in televised remarks after landing at Entebbe airport, shortly before announcing that his family’s investment fund, Alpha MBM, would expedite $4.5 billion in funding for Uganda’s first oil refinery.
The U.A.E., building on its long-held position as the biggest importer of African gold, has significantly changed the landscape in Uganda thanks to its free-spending ways. It has announced deals worth a combined $97 billion in 2022 and 2023, making it the single biggest investor on the continent, according to data collected by fDi Market. That figure dwarfs the $29 billion pledged by China and the $15 billion coming from the U.S.
The U.A.E. government says investments in Africa amounted to about $110 billion over the past decade, reflecting its “commitment to facilitating sustainable development and growth across the continent.”
Its portfolio includes renewable-energy projects in Egypt, leased rice and wheat farmlands in the muddy plains of northern Angola and a majority stake in one of Zambia’s largest copper mines. U.A.E.-backed port projects are dotted around the coasts of the Atlantic, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Gulf state is also trying to become a key supplier of the minerals used in a new generation of batteries.
Some of this spending is designed to strengthen the U.A.E.’s long-term term position against rivals in the Middle East, notably Iran. But it has also made the petrostate an unpredictable player in the growing tussle for influence between the U.S., China, and Russia in Africa.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the U.A.E. shipped weapons including antiaircraft missiles and drones, to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, which is waging a civil war against the Iran-backed Sudanese military and has perpetrated a series of well-documented atrocities against civilian populations, especially in Darfur. It also sold armed drones to Ethiopia’s government, while the U.S. was pushing for a peace deal with Ethiopian rebel groups. Before that, U.N. investigators say it transferred arms to Libyan militia leader Khalifa Haftar in violation of a United Nations Security Council arms embargo.
The U.A.E. has denied shipping weapons to warring parties in the three conflicts.
“The U.A.E. may appear as more friendly to U.S. policies in Africa, but they are not necessarily working in our interests,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. State Department official and now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. “They are advancing their own economic and security goals which are sometimes not aligned with ours.”
There are signs of pushback in parts of Africa, too.
In Chad, local Zaghawa communities have repeatedly staged protests against the U.A.E.’s use of Amdjarass airport in the east of the country to ship supplies to the RSF, according to activists and videos shared online. Lana Nusseibeh, the U.A.E. assistant minister of foreign affairs, was forced to abandon a planned visit to a camp for Sudanese refugees during a September trip to Chad following a confrontation with protesters at a hospital camp near the city of Abéché, according to activists.
The U.A.E. government said Nusseibeh’s one-day visit to Chad took place as scheduled.
In Liberia, then-President George Weah faced months of demonstrations over his government’s decision to grant the rights to develop and sell carbon credits from land that is equivalent to around 10% of the country’s entire territory to Dubai-based Blue Carbon. Joseph Boakai, who won the Liberian presidency in October elections, has since pledged to review the transaction.
Yet the U.A.E.’s biggest impact may still be to come as it expands its footprint in the mining sector. The Emirates-based International Resources Holding last year paid $1.1 billion for a 51% stake in Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia, edging out China’s Zijin Mining Group, which had earlier been shortlisted to take over the operation. The mine had been closed by its previous owner, London-listed Glencore, at the height of the pandemic.
IRH, a unit of Abu Dhabi-listed International Holding Co., pledged to retain the 2,000-strong workforce and says it is on course to restore annual copper output to its pre-closure levels of 200,000 metric tons a year.
IRH, which is headed by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a brother of U.A.E. President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the country’s national security adviser, is eyeing other mining projects on the continent. It has since signed a joint venture agreement with Angola’s state mining company for the extraction of iron ore at Kassala Kitungo mines, some 100 miles east of the capital, Luanda. In Burundi, IRH is in negotiations for a stake in the Musongati nickel mine, one of the largest unexploited nickel deposits in Africa.
“Our long-term commitment extends beyond mere financial gain,” said Ali Al Rashdi, the chief executive of IRH. “This expansion is driven by our belief in the immense potential of the African mining sector, particularly as the global economy transitions toward cleaner energy sources.”
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
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Appeared in the November 9, 2024, print edition as 'UAE Is Investing Billions in Africa'.