Hamidati appointed as Chairman of the Economic Committee .. Is the UAE's desire to seize Sudan's ports victorious?

The political and economic scenes in the corridors of the two scenes in Sudan are witnessing controversy due to the frequent reports of the Sudanese transitional government's intention to privatize five ports and lease them to foreign companies to provide cash liquidity to save them from its suffocating crisis.

These leaks about privatization plans have sparked wide responses among those working in these ports, especially after Dubai Ports Company confirmed its endeavor to acquire Port Sudan, the largest port in Sudan, for 20 years, according to the website "Monitor" revealed in January.

The decision to appoint Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamidati as Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Economic Emergencies came to reinforce the concerns of concluding the deal for Dubai Ports Company, given the wide powers granted to this committee and the man's proximity to the Emirates.

This committee was charged with conducting the country's economic affairs, and held its first meeting on April 16, headed by Hamidati.

Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk stated that the first meeting of the committee touched on issues related to public sector companies and ports and what they considered to be problems in Port Sudan, without revealing the intentions of the committee to deal with this file.

The digital sector in the island toured the ports of the Red Sea in Port Sudan, through which he reviewed the views of workers and port officials and their steps towards these moves, where the statements revealed the volume of rejection and disapproval of any Emirati presence in the Sudanese ports. 

Why refuse?
Sami Al-Sayegh, chief engineer of the coastal station and head of the reformist forces at the Maritime Ports Authority for the digital sector, said they have already begun to unify the port’s workers, engineers, administrators and handling workers in order to stand together against the sale of the port to Dubai Ports Company.

Al-Sayegh confirmed that they have received information stating that the Sudanese government is working to privatize the port for the Emirati government, but that as engineers at the port they refuse the presence of Dubai Ports Company in the Red Sea shore across the Sudanese territories, describing the company as a notorious and well-known political agenda.

The goldsmith considered that the Dubai Ports Company had failed to operate the ports of Djibouti, Yemen and Somalia, and therefore its goal of acquiring the Sudanese ports would be a political rather than an economic goal, stressing that they would resist any tendency to sell the port.

Statistics
The length of the coast of Sudan is estimated at about 800 km, and Sudan has several ports located on the shore of the Red Sea, the most important of which is the southern port designated for receiving containers, the green port designated for receiving catering goods such as flour and sugar, in addition to the northern port, Sawakin port, Othman Diknah Islamic port, and Hidoub port specialized in Transport of livestock, the port of Bashair (1) and Bashair (2), the gas port specializing in receiving the incoming gas, and the port of Al-Khair to transport petroleum products.

The number of workers affiliated to the Maritime Ports Authority is more than 11 thousand workers, while the number of containers entering the ports, according to Eng. Sami Al-Sayegh, is more than 450 thousand containers per year, stressing that the number of containers in 2019 amounted to about 600 thousand containers.

Suspicious deals
In 2018, the Sudanese government signed an agreement - a copy of which was obtained by the digital sector - by which it leased the southern port of the Dubai-based company (ICTSI MIDDLE EAST DMCC), and at that time considered that the company as a cover for the Dubai Ports Company, where the value of the contract that was specified In twenty years, only 450 million dollars.

However, that agreement was met with violent criticism and rejected by port workers and various groups of Sudanese society, which prompted the sovereign council to suspend it.

Although it was the previous government led by ousted President Omar al-Bashir that concluded the agreement, a number of unionists working in the ports believe that the current transitional government is also seeking to lease about five ports to foreign companies to provide nearly two billion dollars, in deals they consider mysterious It is opaque.

Emirati attempts
and the US "Monitor" website had revealed Emirati efforts in which it hired a former Israeli officer who heads "Dickens and Madison" public relations company to pressure Washington to support the Dubai Ports Company's plan to acquire Port Sudan.

The report pointed out that these Emirati efforts aim to expand in the oil and gas sector, which would increase its influence in the region.

Emirati pressure succeeded by holding the financial support announced by the transitional government in returning its strongman to the forefront of the political and security scene, which is witnessing tensions threatening to an imminent explosion, according to the views of some experts and analysts.

Hamidati has received the chairmanship of the Economic Committee to address the worsening of conditions; within the list of new conditions that the UAE paid to the ruling coalition for the forces of the revolution, in exchange for providing any money.

According to informed sources, the UAE has mortgaged any support to the government by guaranteeing Hamidati’s influence, besides embracing the Islamists politically, economically and security, and agreeing to the Sudanese ports deal.

According to the same sources, the UAE wants to control Port Sudan in a way that enhances its influence in the Red Sea for a period of 90 years, in exchange for providing one billion dollars to the government in cash, and installments of two billion dollars for several years.

Rejecting, resisting,
and about the information and leaks that talk about leasing to the Red Sea ports in eastern Sudan, the island's digital sector met a number of officials and trade unionists in the port to find out their position, as it was noted that all of those interviewed were against concluding deals to rent the ports and declared their resistance to any step that goes in this direction.

A member of the Southern Port Workers' Association, Abboud El-Sherbiny, says they will not allow the port to be privatized, and that the option will be for the Sudanese people, as he put it.

"We own the field and are ready to sacrifice ourselves, and we will not accept the presence of the infamous Dubai Ports Company within Sudanese territory as he described," added El-Sherbiny, who is among the most prominent who stood against the decision to contract with the Philippine company.

Not for sale The
voices that talked about privatizing the Port of Sudan prompted the director of the Ports Authority, Onur Mohamed Adam, to declare earlier that the port of Portat Sudan is not for sale, and that rumors about it are just baseless allegations.

However, port activist and worker Abboud El-Sherbiny said that they would not believe the port manager’s statements, and that the current sale order was planned at night, recalling what happened in 2018, when the former port manager said at the time, denying his sale, and after his three-day permit, the government announced its agreement with the Philippine company, according to El-Sherbiny’s description. .

In the context, the port unionist Othman Taher says to the island's digital sector that they will not accept the sale of the port to Dubai Ports Company or any other company, because this leads to a violation of the rights of workers in the port and a violation of national sovereignty.

Taher considered that the Dubai Ports Company is the worst in operating the ports in the region, and that the UAE wants, through its keenness to buy Burat Sudan, to plunge Sudan into its regional wars to serve its political agenda.