The United Arab Emirates will build a new Red Sea port in Sudan, as part of a $6 billion investment package, said DAL group chairman Osama Daoud Abdellatif, a partner in the deal which marks the first major foreign investment since the military took power in an October coup.

Abdellatif said that the package includes a free trade zone, a large agricultural project and an imminent $300 million deposit to Sudan’s central bank.

Western donors suspended billions in aid and investment to Sudan after the coup, plunging an economy that was already struggling into further turmoil and depriving the government of much needed foreign currency.

The $4 billion port, a joint project between DAL group and Abu Dhabi Ports, owned by Abu Dhabi’s holding company ADQ, would be able to handle all kinds of commodities and compete with the country’s main national port, Port Sudan, Abdellatif said.

On June 15, Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim told Reuters that his government signed an agreement with the UAE for a large agricultural project linked by a road to a new port to be built on the Red Sea.

The finance ministry had immediately responded to a request for comment on details of the deal.