Bosaso (Somalia Today) — US officials are vowing to curb the United Arab Emirates’ alleged support for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). At the same time, US forces are quietly relying on an Emirati-built base in the Somali port city of Bosaso to wage their own wars in the Horn of Africa.
The uneasy overlap has turned the US use of the Bosaso base in Somalia into a test of how far Washington is willing to push Abu Dhabi over Sudan.
Speaking after a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting near Niagara Falls, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to name the UAE when asked who was arming the RSF.
He insisted that Washington knew who was supplying the group and said the support “needs to stop”. Yet he stopped short of publicly calling out Abu Dhabi.
Days later, after lobbying from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, US President Donald Trump announced that “we’re going to start working on Sudan”.
The statement signalled a tougher line on atrocities committed by the RSF in Darfur. Behind those words, however, lies a quieter reality on Somalia’s northern coast.
Bosaso hub for two different wars
Bosaso, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, sits on the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden along a key global shipping lane. Over the past few years, the UAE has transformed the town’s port and airfield into a fortified hub used for both cargo and military operations.
Residents have grown used to the thunder of large cargo planes landing at the airport. Satellite imagery and flight tracking data cited by Middle East Eye indicate that Bosaso has become a key staging point in a UAE-run “air bridge” into Sudan, even as Emirati officials deny arming the RSF.
At the same time, US Africa Command (Africom) has been using the same airfield for counter-terrorism operations targeting the Islamic State in Somalia.
On November 10, just three days before Rubio condemned RSF atrocities in the besieged city of el-Fasher, Africom carried out an air strike near Golgol Cave, about 32km southeast of Bosaso.
Since Trump took office, the New America think tank says he has overseen a sharp escalation in US strikes in Somalia compared with the previous administration. Many of those operations have involved Puntland forces and Emirati-built infrastructure. Together, they show how counter-terrorism is binding US and UAE security interests.
Flights, containers and ‘grey ops’
Flight data compiled by Middle East Eye shows a steady pattern of heavy transport aircraft moving through Bosaso. A US Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules has flown in from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the largest US base in Africa, then continued to Kenya and returned to Djibouti.
More often, IL-76 cargo planes operated by companies linked to the UAE have shuttled between Bosaso and Emirati airfields. At times, they switch off their transponders for parts of the journey.
A senior Puntland Maritime Police Force commander described heavy, undisclosed cargo being offloaded and reloaded under tight guard. Some of that cargo, he said, was destined for RSF-held territory in Sudan via neighbouring states.
Port officials say that over the past two years, more than half a million containers labelled as hazardous have passed through Bosaso under Emirati oversight.
Intelligence shared with Western officials links some of these flows to Sudan’s conflict economy. At the same time, US and Emirati forces use the same facilities to pursue Islamic State cells.
Cameron Hudson, a former US State Department official and CIA analyst, calls Bosaso a “tactical and operational alliance” between Washington and Abu Dhabi. He says the partnership is also ideological, rooted in a shared desire to combat Islamist militancy across the region.
“When you have warehouses of lethal equipment, how does anyone differentiate between which stuff is going to the RSF and which stuff is being used for counter-terrorism targets?” Hudson asked.
“It’s genius by the UAE, because it is the perfect cover, mingling white ops with black ops. It all just becomes grey ops.”
A widening Emirati footprint
Bosaso is only one node in a wider Emirati network that stretches across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The UAE has invested in facilities on Yemeni islands such as Socotra, Abd al-Kuri, and Samhah, as well as Mocha on Yemen’s coast and Mayun in the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which about 30 percent of global oil trade passes.
In Somaliland, the UAE has helped upgrade the port and runway at Berbera, another strategic site on the Gulf of Aden. Satellite images show a long runway capable of handling large transport aircraft and fighter jets, alongside a modern deep-water port.
Berbera has already been used as a staging point to send Sudanese fighters to Yemen. Somaliland authorities have also signalled they are open to hosting a US base and possibly even Israeli forces in return for recognition and investment.
Somali analysts and Sudanese officials warn that Abu Dhabi’s project is less about stabilising the region and more about securing leverage over trade routes and mineral resources.
In 2024, the UAE received about 90 percent of Sudan’s official gold exports, highlighting what is at stake.
Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the US dilemma
As Trump promises to “start working on Sudan”, the United States is being drawn deeper into a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Riyadh wants to remain the key player in any eventual reconstruction of Gaza and Sudan. Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, is building what some Sudanese policymakers describe as a new maritime empire in the Red Sea.
Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst, says Washington is now “refereeing” between its two Gulf partners. She notes that the Trump administration has political and security ties with the UAE, including on Israel and Gaza reconstruction, while still relying on Saudi Arabia as a traditional strategic ally.
For US officials, counter-terrorism and access to bases like Bosaso remain top priorities, especially amid China and other powers’ entrenched presence in Djibouti. That reality makes it harder to take a hard public line on Emirati support for the RSF, even as images of mass graves and burned neighbourhoods in el-Fasher shock global opinion.
“The glaring disagreement between the US and UAE is over Sudan, but that comes in the context of what appears to be a very tight and productive relationship,” Hudson said.
In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump described “tremendous atrocities” in Sudan and pledged to work with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and “other Middle Eastern partners” to end them.
As he wrote, another IL-76 cargo plane descended over Bosaso, its engines echoing across the city. The scene symbolised the unresolved contradictions of US reliance on Emirati bases while trying to contain the same partner’s role in Sudan’s war.
