Somalia, Kenya agreed to restore relations

Image result for Farmajo and Uhuru

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Kenyan and Somali heads of state agreed ‘to restore relations to previous status’ and ‘take diplomatic steps to build confidence between the two governments’.


Kenya and Somalia have been at loggerheads over a maritime and territorial dispute that is currently before the International Court of Justice, ICJ, in The Hague.

Since February this year, when Somalia accused Kenya of auctioning oil and gas fields in the disputed maritime area, relations between the two countries have gone cold.
Diplomats of the two countries have been working overtime to manage incidents including suspension of direct flights from Mogadishu to Kenya.


The agreement reached in the United States on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, is the second time this year that both countries are committing to restoring diplomatic relations.


In this new agreement, Somalia reportedly insisted that the maritime case should be left to the ICJ for final arbitration.


In March this year, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed mediated talks between the two East African neighbors.

However, Somalia's president Mohamed Abdullahi Faramjo speech at UN General Assembly that made up for minutes ago in New York:-----------------

He said  “bilateral negotiations didn’t achieved and agreements in the past in order to a peaceful and equitable settlement in 2014 in conformity with international law. Somalia institutes the proceedings before the international court of justice”.
    
He goes and said “We are very pleased that the court had found that it had jurisdictions to resolve the dispute, and that is scheduled the final hearing of the merit of the case for the first week of the November this year”. He stressed that Somalia is up to for this case at its end at ICJ.

Both countries claim ownership of an area, almost 150,000 square kilometers (57,915 square miles) off the Indian Ocean coastline, said to be rich with oil, gas and tuna fish. In 2014, Somalia’s government went to court to challenge a 2009 agreement that set its maritime border along latitudinal lines extending 450 nautical miles into the Indian Ocean.
 



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