CDR | 8 April 2025
UAE investor files arbitration against Comoros
by Andrew Mizner
A Swiss law firm is representing a UAE company in an ICSID arbitration against the African island nation, alleging expropriation of investments and unfair treatment.
A UAE-based construction company has filed an investor-state arbitration against the government of the Comoros, in relation to investments made in the African island nation in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
United Operations Limited filed its claim on 31 March at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against President Azali Assoumani, Justice Minister Said Omar Houmadi and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mbae Mohamed, alleging expropriation and lack of fair and equitable treatment under the 2015 Comoros-UAE bilateral investment treaty.
The company has instructed managing partner William Kirtley and senior associate Nina Jankovic of Geneva-headquartered specialist law firm Aceris Law to represent it and the case is now pending while a tribunal is constituted.
Comoros is made up of an archipelago off the east coast of Africa. It is the third-smallest nation in the region and the fifth-smallest by population with around 850,000 inhabitants. The country engaged in an extensive external investment plan which began in the mid-late 2000s involving officials and businesspeople from the UAE and Kuwait, which would have provided economic citizenship in return for investment in services and facilities. Although some work was done, the scheme largely fell apart amid acrimony in the mid-2010s.
The precise nature of United Operations’ investment or operations in the country is currently unclear.
African states have had an increasingly uncomfortable relationship with investment arbitration, which some accuse of favouring Western corporations and failing to understand the issues faced by African governments.
One endeavour intended to improve representation, the African Promise, was launched in 2019.
This year, Isle of Man-based potash company Emmerson secured funding for a claim against Morocco, while a sand mining claim was brought against Tunisia by an Italian company. In February, West African state Guinea defeated an attempt to enforce an arbitration award against in the US.
