The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on the maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia on October 12.
Since 2014, the neighboring East African states have been at odds over the Indian Ocean border.
Somalia filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s main judicial authority (UN).
Somalia requests the court to determine on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the ocean.
It includes the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.
The applicant further asks the ICJ to determine the precise geographical co-ordinates of the single maritime boundary.
Somalia believes the boundary line in the territorial sea should be “a median line as specified in Article 15 (of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), since there are no special circumstances that would justify departure from such a line.”
Kenya asserts the maritime boundary should be “a straight line emanating from the parties’ land boundary terminus, and extending due east along the parallel of latitude on which the land boundary terminus sits.”
In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, only members of the ICJ and representatives of the parties in dispute will be present in the Great Hall of Justice when the court delivers its judgment.
Relations between Kenya and Somalia have been tense for some time over economic and maritime boundary issues.
