Simmering border disputes in battle
to control oil, gas
In Summary
·
Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, South
Sudan and Uganda are all engaged in arguments over border, which have
intensified with the discovery of minerals.
·
As East Africa becomes a hotspot for oil,
gas and mineral exploration, the past three years have seen multimillion-dollar
foreign investments in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and Mozambique.
·
At the centre of the latest dispute is
Kenya’s decision to lease eight offshore blocks to oil exploration companies,
seven of them in a contested area of the Indian Ocean amounting to 116,000
square kilometres—an area roughly the size of Malawi.
·
The East African Energy Forum, a Somali
lobby group linked to Transparency International, last week issued warnings to
the Kenyan government and four international oil companies it said were
“illegally exploiting” offshore hydrocarbon concessions off the southern coast
of Somalia.
·
While the 1982 UN Common Law on the Sea is
cited in the Kenya-Somalia dispute, Tanzania and Malawi are holding their
positions on two conflicting laws governing their borders.
·
The two countries are in dispute over oil
exploration rights after Malawi last year issued a licence to a British firm to
prospect for hydrocarbons in Lake Malawi.
·
Malawi maintains that the border between the
two countries was defined in the Heligoland Treaty signed by Germany and
Britain, who were the colonial rulers at that time, on July 1, 1890.
·
Tanzania for its part believes that the
border should be in the middle of Lake Malawi, basing its argument on common
international law, which stipulates that in situations where two countries are
separated by a body of water, the border is in the middle of that water body.
The
discovery of oil and gas in the East African region could mark the beginning of
long-drawn-out diplomatic dramas triggered by territorial disputes over control
of resources.
Kenya,
Somalia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, South Sudan and Uganda are all engaged in
arguments over border, which have intensified with the discovery of minerals.
As East
Africa becomes a hotspot for oil, gas and mineral exploration, the past three
years have seen multimillion-dollar foreign investments in Uganda, Tanzania,
Kenya, Sudan and Mozambique.
The huge
flow of foreign investments into the oil and gas sector is creating unease
between countries seeking control of the region’s natural resources, political
and international relations analysts said.
At the
centre of the latest dispute is Kenya’s decision to lease eight offshore blocks
to oil exploration companies, seven of them in a contested area of the Indian
Ocean amounting to 116,000 square kilometres—an area roughly the size of
Malawi.
And while
Kenyan officials remain confident that the area is in their territory, their
Somali counterparts are alarmed.
The East
African Energy Forum, a Somali lobby group linked to Transparency
International, last week issued warnings to the Kenyan government and four
international oil companies it said were “illegally exploiting” offshore
hydrocarbon concessions off the southern coast of Somalia.
The lobby
group said on Thursday (last week) the oil giants had engaged in a “gross
infringement of Somalia’s offshore resources, territorial integrity and
sovereignty.”
“These
offshore oil blocks are solely owned by the Republic of Somalia as stipulated
in the 1982 UN Common Law on the Sea. Kenya’s move to sell these oil blocks
violates international law,” said Abdillahi Mohamud, the lobby’s managing
director.
Source: AfricaReview Newspaper
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