The Horn of Africa nation of Somalia is better known as the poorest country on earth, with a per capita gross domestic product of $400, and for lacking a coherent government since the 1991 ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre as President. What many do not remember is that it was one of the first newly independent African States – in the 1960s – to hold credible elections and witness a peaceful transfer of power. That, of course, was before 1969, when the temptation to emulate the Togolese military, which had staged Africa’s first coup in 1963, proved too hard to resist for Barre. That is why not too many tears were shed when he suffered the same fate and had to leave the country at breakneck speed, with troops loyal to General Mohamed Farrah Aideed in hot pursuit. He died in Nigeria about four years later, a desolate man.

For the 27 years since Barre’s fall, the narrative about Somalia has been very negative: near-constant strife and famine that have led to the country’s being on the brink of disaster, acts of terror by Jihadists and piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the cost of which increased to $1.7-billion in 2016, up from $1.3-billion in 2015, according to statistics from not-for-profit organisation Oceans Beyond Piracy.

All this makes the country the most unlikely target of a new scramble for African soil. But Gulf States – allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and their bitter rival Qatar, which is in the same corner as Turkey – are pouring huge sums into the country, mostly for infrastructure development, as they seek to extend their influence to the country and to gain access to seaports. These rivals also fall on either side of the divide between Russia and the US.

While the Saudi-UAE bloc prefers to work with the semi-autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland, this is against the wishes of the Mogadishu-based federal government, which favours Qatar and Turkey.

Among the projects being financed by the UAE’s petrodollars is the $336-million expansion of the Port of Bosaso, in Puntland, the contract for which was signed in 2017.

Less than a year before the Port of Bosaso deal was sealed, DP World, a company mostly owned by the government of Dubai, which is part of the UAE, assumed control of the small Port of Berbera, in Somaliland, and pledged to expand it at a cost of $450-million.

The Port of Berbera is used mostly to export livestock to Gulf States and as a gateway for imports into Somaliland. But when its expansion is completed in the next decade, it will be one of the biggest ports in East Africa. DP World will operate the facility under a 30-year concession.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development announced last year that it had earmarked $89.8-million for projects in Somalia (presumably only in the breakaway regions) in sectors as varied as renewable energy, transport, infrastructure, agriculture, mining, industry, healthcare, social services, housing, eater and electricity.

For its part, Qatar has made available hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure, education and humanitarian assistance to the central government in Mogadishu. And in November last year the Qatar Investment Authority inked a $200-million infrastructure investment agreement to fund projects that include the construction of a 90 km road linking Mogadishu and the Lower Shaballe region.

Meanwhile, Turkey has pumped almost $1-billion into the Horn of Africa country in aid since 2011, and its investments in the country currently stand at more than $100-million. In September last year, Turkey opened a military academy south of Mogadishu, its largest such facility abroad, which has a 4 km2 footprint and will train about 1 500 troops at a time. And at the beginning of this year, Turkey and Somalia signed an agreement to boost their economic partnership, with the deal expected to increase bilateral trade from $120-million in 2016 to more than $200-millon a year.