After several attempts made to solve the Kenya Somalia dispute over the location of oil blocks failed, the two countries have now decided to opt for a legal battle at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
According to a report coming from Dalsan Radio, Nairobi is putting together final touches on papers for the case. The case is scheduled to begin in September in The Hague.
The dispute between the two neighboring African countries is over their maritime boundary, with both claiming rights on a narrow 100,000-sq km triangle of sea shelf that is expected to contain significant deposits of oil and gas.
While Kenya has always preferred to resolve the boundary issue out of court, Somalia went the other way round and filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2014, which is still to be adjudicated. Notably, in 2016, Kenya failed to convince the ICJ that it was not within its jurisdiction to determine the matter.
Last month, Kenya summoned its ambassador to Somalia after the latter allegedly auctioned off oil, gas and mineral blocks falling within the disputed territory. Somalia, on the other hand, denied auction of offshore oil blocks in the disputed area.
After the incident, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed also tried his part to settle the Kenya Somalia dispute and restore diplomatic relations between the two countries. He accompanied his Somalian counterpart Mohamed Farmaajo to Nairobi to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya. Abiy and Farmaajo left for Nairobi after holding bilateral talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. But, unfortunately, the parties once again failed to reach an agreement.
Kenya is likely to make some submission before the ICJ in September which includes the results of an expensive seismic study to prove that the ocean floor of the disputed area includes minerals eroded from rivers in Kenya scattered over 300 nautical miles from the shore.
