Horn of Africa. Credit: VOA
President Xi Jinping of China launched the Belt and Road Initiative in Kazakhstan in 2013. Since then, it has expanded into various land and maritime routes, indeed, many belts and many roads. This development has been closely observed by other regions, including the United States and Europe, which view themselves as economically significant and in competition.
Hundreds of countries have already signed into the BRI through memoranda of understanding and the BRI projects are currently valued in trillions of United States Dollars. Two Horn African countries (Djibouti and Ethiopia) and two East African countries (Kenya and Uganda) have benefitted from China’s investments at concessional financing and favorable terms and conditions, and this has supported these countries’ economic transformation.
In Djibouti, the BRI projects involved construction of the Dorraleh Multi-purpose port, the international free zone industrial park and the rail and road links to Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, itself, the BRI financed projects included, among others, the Ethio-Djibouti Railway, the Addis Ababa transit railway and ring road, modern storage facilities of Ethiopian airlines, a number of inter-city road projects, and industrial parks development in many cities of the country.
In East Africa, the Chinese have financed the construction of the Nairobi – Thika Super Highway, the Mombasa- Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway and the Lake Turkana- Suswa power line transmission station, all in Kenya. They also funded and helped construct two large dams and hydropower plants, at Isimba and Karuma, the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway and the development of oil fields in the Albertine Rift, in Uganda.
The Americans have come up with the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, while the Europeans came up with the Global Gateway as a response to the BRI of China. They were both launched to fund and finance projects that support and help both people and the planet across the globe. We are concerned in this article the European Global Gateway and the Horn of Africa region.
The Global gateway was launched in 2021 in Brussels to help narrow global investment gaps. It was designed to help finance global infrastructures in line with UN sustainable development goals. It was to raise some € 300 billion for this purpose with €150 billion for Africa.
For the Horn Africa region, no specific amounts were set, but apparently, ministerial meetings, between the European Commission in Brussels and the finance ministers of the Horn of Africa countries, have taken place in 2023 during which it was agreed on the following:
- The EU will mobilize €25 million to support trade and regional economic integration. It is not clear if any of those funds have been disbursed. And instead of integration, the countries of the region seem to be drifting apart with Ethiopia still involved in its expansionist agenda of getting access to a sea.
- The EU will allocate € 58 million to help the region withstand climate changes and other shocks. There is no evidence they have carried out any such project in the region.
These projects were to be carried out under the auspices of the ministers of finance of the region and branded as the Horn of Africa Initiative (HOAI) which was established in 2019, and which was supposed to work on regional integration. The countries of the region appear to most observers that they are anything but integrating, with Ethiopia threatening, albeit indirectly, all the coastal countries of the region, in its fake claim that it cannot economically grow unless it has access to a sea, which it has through commercial-based agreements.
It was reported by the East and Horn of Africa Office of the International Organization for Migration, on February 18, 2025, that the European Union under its Global Gateway and Horn of Africa Initiative strategies has supported projects to the tune of € 1.26 billion to the region in the recent past, according to the EU’s Ambassador to Somalia.
The report does not say which projects were financed or in which country or countries they were financed. It is, indeed, an enormous amount but does not involve infrastructural development, which could have been well known to the international media. Perhaps a large part of this amount involves the financing of the African forces in Somalia, which should have been removed from the country long ago. They do not add value to Somalia’s security or safety. The terror groups imposed by foreign parties on the country still operate there and even threaten the capital city, Mogadishu.
A project of some €11 million called ‘Daris Wacan Initiative’ under the Global Gateway was, launched earlier this year to enhance the resilience of the people, who live on the border between Somalia and Kenya. The project is related to building water management facilities and feeder roads.
The Horn of Africa region and especially Somalia is important for the European Union. It is reported that some 20% of the EU’s exports and imports pass off its coast, while competition from other regions like the Arab Gulf countries, India and China for the region is increasing constantly. It would be imperative for the EU to more than double its efforts, not on meaningless security issues, but on real development and economic growth, which would move away the bulging youth from becoming recruits for malicious militias financed by malevolent forces in the region.
The European Global Gateway has not yet proven useful for the region, and the competition could win the region sooner than later. It is important for the EU to concentrate on economic development projects such as roads and rail, marine and mining development projects, issues that have contextual, historical, and developmental implications for the region.
Dr. Suleiman Walhad
Dr. Suleiman Walhad writes on the Horn of Africa economies and politics. He can be reached at suleimanwalhad@yahoo.com.