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Somali government to draft Bill of land, territorial waters

Storyline:National News

Following the public outcry about Kenya’s encroachment on Somali land, the government said that it is about a draft a new bill of territory and territorial waters to the parliament.

Speaking on the record, the deputy chairman of parliamentary interior affairs committee, Dahir Amin Jesow said that a bill will be drafted to classify the country’s territory and territorial waters.

“The bill is a response to all the problems about Somalia’s borderlines with its Neighbours and will be submitted the parliament as soon as possible” he said.

Jeesow pointed that Kenya has stopped the constructing the security wall immediately Somali parliament dispatched a fact-finding committee to areas along Somalia-Kenya border.

“We did not see anyone at Somalia-Kenya borderline but we suspected Kenya to have stopped the constructing of the wall temporarily to mislead the fact-finding committee” he said.

On 16th this month, Somali parliamentarians have sent fact-finding committee following the wall construction by Kenya which it said had encroached on Somali territory.

The team led by Defense Minister Abdulkadir Ali Dini has just concluded the two day visit to the border areas saying that there was evidence showing encroaching on Somali territory.

Last year Somali government filed 150-page court filing on Somalia’s maritime border dispute with Kenya at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Somalia in its application is requesting the  ICJ 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 Indian Ocean, including the continental shelf beyond 200 [nautical miles].” It also asks the ICJ “to determine the precise geographical coordinates of the single maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean.”