Somalia sends delegation to ICJ for maritime case

Somalia’s attorney general, who is part of the delegation, said he was optimistic that the Somali government would win the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

News Keydmedia Online
8 March 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Federal Government of Somalia has on Monday sent a high-level delegation to the Hague to attend the hearing of a maritime dispute case with Kenya by the International Court of Justice.

The deputy PM Mahdi Guled, the Attorney General Suleiman Mohamed, his predecessor Ahmed Ali Dahir and Yusuf Garaad Omar, the former foreign minister will participate in the ICJ oral proceedings.

Foreign lawyers from the US, UK, and France have been hired by the Somali government to defend the country in a maritime dispute case it filed in 2014 after the two neighboring countries failed in past negotiations.

Kenya has made a similar preparation by hiring eight international lawyers to face Somalia at ICJ on March 15 following series of attempts to postpone the scheduled hearing for the fourth time this year.

Somalia’s attorney general, who is part of the delegation, said he was optimistic that the Somali government would win the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The dispute is rooted in a rift over which direction the two countries' border extends into the Indian Ocean. Somalia asserts a center-line from the land border terminus but Kenya insists on a straight line.

The disputed area is about 100,000km square said to contain hydrocarbons reserves.

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