Nile Valley development

In 2020, Sudanese magnate Osama Daoud Abdellatif called on the Emirates to develop activities in the Nile Valley in the north of the country: some 13,000 hectares of circular irrigated fields, meant to double in size by the end of this year, and reach 52,000 hectares by 2025. The investment represents $225 million, financed through a joint venture with the Royal Group fund, owned by Sheikh Tahnoun Ben Zayed Al Nahyan, a high-ranking Abu Dhabi official and national security advisor. At full operational capacity, the profitability of the operation will be based on exports, expected to reach 70% of production.

Here too, the project is based on the deployment of a mega-port, this time by AD Ports Group, the powerful Abu Dhabi operator, in partnership with Invictus Investments, another company owned by Osama Daoud Abdellatif, which operates in agricultural commodities trading from Dubai. A preliminary $6 billion agreement signed in December calls for the development of a container terminal in the north of the country, opposite the Saudi commercial port of Jeddah.

Because of its position on the shores of the Red Sea, at the entrance to the Horn of Africa, Sudan is a hub on the maritime route linking the Suez Canal to the Strait of Oman.

The Arab capitals feel that they have a card to play.

A senior Arab diplomat who requested to remain anonymous said the consequences of the war in Ukraine are also weighing on the situation. "The Arab capitals feel that they have a card to play in the recomposition of the flows of international trade in raw materials," says the envoy.

As for Saudi Arabia, it has injected $3 billion into the Sudan Investment Fund, for projects in the agriculture, energy, water, sanitation, transport and telecommunications sectors.

Behind-the-scenes truce talks

Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that the many investments announced since 2019 are regularly delayed by political instability and chronic insecurity in Sudan. Since the beginning of the conflict, Riyadh has been cautious in its declarations, investing instead in the field of humanitarian diplomacy with a vast operation of evacuation by sea. Saudi Arabia is also the most active behind the scenes, alongside South Sudan, to promote peace talks between the warring factions.

Ahead of Saturday's talks, both sides said only a humanitarian truce — not a negotiation to end the war — was on the table.

Cairo is aligned with its Arab partners to try to contain the conflict.

Still, the UAE, no less discreet than the Saudis, is said to be supporting the negotiations, while Egypt, a well-known supporter of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s regular army, has so far not delivered any arms or logistical reinforcements. In great economic difficulty, facing critical food insecurity, Cairo is aligned with its Arab partners to try to contain the conflict.