After a period of cold relations, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) now seeks to court Somalia, offering to reopen the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Mogadishu, which it closed two years ago. Yet like many of Abu Dhabi’s humanitarian gestures, this helping hand comes at a price.
Somalia News reported July 1 that, in exchange for restoring the hospital, Abu Dhabi requested that Somalia backs its involvement in Yemen. The offer came after the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized Yemen’s Socotra island in the Gulf of Aden on June 20, which the UAE has eyed for some time.
