The Somalia Federal government has said that it will submit the maritime dispute case it has with Kenya at the International Court of Justice next week.
This announcement comes barely a week before the Kenyan government acknowledged receipt of Somalia’s pledge to solve the case outside the United Nation Court.
Somalia; which has the Africa’s longest coastline and which is struggling to set up a working economy mainly by resetting up its fishing industry and oil/gas industry to resuscitate its country from the crisis brought by Al Shabaab.
Somalia hopes to solve and reclaim the ocean territory they claim Kenya has laid fake claim on. The decision to file the case in the United Nations court was after out-of-court negotiations yielded no results.
Somalia expressed high hopes in the case as she accused Kenya of awarding offshore oil and gas exploration blocks to Total and Eni; Multinational oil corporations.
In attempts to resolve the issue Energy Ministry in Kenya suggested a boundary run in a straight line same as the established in between Kenya and Tanzania and where offshore natural gas deposits had been discovered. The proposition was however scuttled by Somalia’s parliament and instead opted for UN court resolution of the dispute
