Berbera Base

The United Arab Emirates established a military facility at Berbera after reaching an agreement with Somaliland in 2017. Somaliland's parliament approved the arrangement, giving the UAE access to the airport and surrounding area for military purposes. The agreement formed part of the UAE's wider effort to establish forward positions around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during its military involvement in Yemen.

The Berbera facility provided the UAE with a forward air and logistics position on the Gulf of Aden, close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the maritime routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. The site was intended to support military operations, transport and logistics, while its location also provided strategic access to one of the region's most important maritime corridors.

The UAE invested heavily in Berbera's aviation and military infrastructure, including improvements to the airport and the expansion of facilities capable of supporting military aircraft and other operations. The wider Berbera port complex also provided an important logistics connection, allowing the UAE to combine air and maritime access along the Gulf of Aden. The facility therefore formed part of a broader Emirati expeditionary network supporting operations in the region.

The military role of the site changed as the UAE reduced its direct involvement in the Yemen war. In 2019, the UAE began shifting the project away from an exclusively military purpose, and the airport was subsequently developed for civilian use. Berbera International Airport opened in 2021, creating a civilian aviation facility on a site that had previously been developed in significant part for Emirati military purposes.

The later status of the military component is less clear. Reports and satellite-based assessments published from 2024 onward have identified continuing or renewed military-related infrastructure at Berbera, while reporting in 2026 has described further construction associated with a potential UAE military presence. The site is therefore best treated as a former UAE military base with a disputed and potentially changing military-use status, rather than being classified simply as either fully active or fully abandoned.