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However the move was rejected by Amar’s Beni Amer tribe in the Red Sea State, which includes the cities of Port Sudan and Suakin.

Workers at the southern port, Sudan’s main sea terminal for containers, and at Suakin port to the south, were on strike over the peace deal, said Aboud el-Sherbiny, head of the Port Sudan Workers Union.

And an even bigger contract has been agreed to develop another port facility, in the city of Suakin, south of Port Sudan.

In March 2018, Sudan and Qatar announced plans for a $4 billion agreement to jointly develop the Red Sea port of Suakin off Sudan’s coast.

On the diplomatic front, Turkey has in recent years opened at least 26 embassies in Africa, expanded the Turkish Airlines network to 55 destinations in Africa, established military bases in Somalia and Qatar and negotiated a long-term lease for Sudan’s Suakin Island in the Red Sea.