The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague in Netherlands has issued a timetable for the Somalia-Kenya maritime trial, which begins on the 15th of this month.
Read the schedule below
(1)- Round One
Monday 15 March 2021 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Somalia)
Tuesday 16 March 2021 3 p.m.-4.30 p.m. (Somalia)
Thursday 18 March 2021 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Kenya)
Friday 19 March 2021 3 p.m.-4.30 p.m. (Kenya)
(2)- Second round
Monday 22 March 2021 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Somalia)
Wednesday 24 March 2021 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Kenya)
In 2014, Somalia petitioned the ICJ at the Hague for a review after bilateral talks with Kenya failed to settle the maritime dispute involving a 62,000 square-mile triangle in the Indian Ocean, which is believed to be rich in hydrocarbons.
The 62,000-square-mile triangle of the Indian Ocean is driving a wedge in the Horn of Africa. For years, Kenya and Somalia have been at odds over the pie-shaped slice of the sea, to which each lays a claim and which is believed to contain sizable oil and gas deposits.
The disputes between Kenya and Somalia is rooted in a disagreement over which direction the two countries’ border extends into the Indian Ocean.
Somalia argues that the maritime boundary should continue on in the same direction as the land border’s southeasterly path.
Kenya, meanwhile, insists that the border should take a roughly 45-degree turn at the shoreline and run in a latitudinal line, giving Nairobi access to a larger chunk of the sea.
In the recent past, Kenya and Somalia’s diplomatic relations have deteriorated, with Somali citing interference in its sovereign affairs by the Kenyan government.
BY OSMAN HUSSEIN ALI
