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Maritime border row: Experts advise Kenya, Somalia to join hands


The area in the Kenya-Somalia maritime border dispute is about 100,000km2 forming a triangle east of the Kenya coast. FILE GRAPHIC | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By FRED OLUOCH

Maritime experts are advising Kenya and Somalia to enter into a partnership in the exploitation of natural resources in the disputed maritime border, even as they continue to negotiate.

They refer to the Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe example, where the two states established Joint Development Zones (JDZ) in 2003 after it became clear that they could not agree on a maritime border.

Kenya and Somalia are at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where Mogadishu filed a suit in 2014 accusing Kenya of encroaching on 100,000 square kilometres of marine territory with potential oil and gas deposits in the Indian Ocean. The diplomatic negotiations had dragged for six years without success.

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Timothy Walker, a maritime specialist at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria told The EastAfrican that Somalia and Kenya would benefit more by jointly exploiting the oil and gas in the disputed border area.

“African maritime boundary disputes, unless resolved in a concerted and timely manner will imperil vital maritime economic activities and Kenya and Somalia would benefit more by working together in oil and gas exploitation,” he said.

JDZ are normally established when the parties find it difficult to agree on a single boundary between them or because the resources straddled across the maritime border cannot be effectively exploited and equitably by the individual states acting alone.

Mr Walker said that African countries that have been loyal to boundaries drawn by the colonial masters are just waking up their maritime domains not only for security, but more importantly for transport, trade and the potential mineral benefits lying beneath the sea.

He said that Africa’s poorly demarcated boundaries are sources of conflict and it is time that  states ensure that their claims comply with the provisions of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea concerning maritime boundaries for territorial and exclusive economic zone waters.

“The maritime domain took a long time to assume the importance it is now perceived to have in what is referred to as “sea blindness.”

Maritime boundary disputes, many long dormant, are increasingly exacerbated by a growing interest in exploring and exploiting natural resources. At present, besides Kenya and Somalia, other notable border disputes have arisen between Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, said Mr Walker.

The ICJ tribunal started hearing the Kenya-Somalia case from September 19 and will rule on notice whether it has the jurisdiction to solve the issue.

Somalia wants the borders to run vertically south-east, the same angle as the land border, but Kenya insists that the border lines should run horizontally eastwards into the ocean which has been the practice among countries bordering the ocean since 1924.

Source: The East African

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