Kenya Somali Maritime Border Case Headed for the International Court Next Week

A fortnight after Kenya’s foreign affairs minister Amina Mohammed said that the East African nation and its horn of African neighbor had agreed to settle maritime border issues outside the international court of Justice the Somalia government has said it would submit the case next week.

According to the Somali publication Somali Current the decision follows consultations between the horn of Africa nation officials with maritime experts and international lawyers.

Somalia government has been quoted as confident they will win the case that could see Kenya loose seven oil blocks in the Indian Ocean including Blocks L5, L21, L22, L23, L24 and L26.

The blocks fall in a disputed triangle stretching more than 100,000 a sq kilometers (approx. 40,000 sq miles) of which Kenya has awarded exploration contracts to various international companies among them Eni, Andarko and Total.

There has been no reaction from Kenya in the meanwhile  not responded to the latest development.

Somalia has petitioned the court  to rule on whether the two countries should decide the border using the equidistant line which would see Somalia’s maritime border extend South East unlike the current situation where the border extends eastwards, or a historical perspective.