The United Nations Security Council rejected a controversial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which war-torn Somalia recently signed with neighbouring Kenya over the delimitation of the maritime boundary.

Through a resolution released on March 13, the council followed the clear guidelines stated by the Somalia’s parliament, where lawmakers voted against the agreement.

Some Somali politicians have welcomed the resolution from the UN security council.

“I welcome the UN resolution that rejects the maritime agreement between Somalia and Kenya because Kenya wants to illegally allocate itself a portion of Somalia’s territorial waters,” said Somali deputy speaker Prof. Mohammed Omar Dalha.  

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula and Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, Somalia’s Minister for National Planning and International Cooperation, signed the agreement on April.

The agreement partly states that the “two coastal states are conscious that the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles is without prejudice to the question of delimitation of the continental shelf between states with opposite or adjacent.”

The MOU further states that the two states are yet to resolve “maritime dispute” between them and Somalia intends to submit to the United Nations Secretary General a preliminary information about the deal.

The two countries are required to submit signed documents and  particulars of outer limits with scientific, technical support data and full backing of neighbouring coastal states to United Nations Commission on the of the Continental Shelf as by required under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Kenya, which intends to delineate the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, is the architect of the deal.

GAROWE ONLINE