This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
Published on October 24, 2019, the US has backed President Kenyatta's efforts to resolve the Kenya-Somalia maritime border dispute through negotiations rather than a court case.
US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter revealed that Washington has urged Somalia to drop its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to facilitate talks between the two countries.
"I've been to Mogadishu to speak to the Somalia president [Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo]. I told him to pull off the court case," McCarter said in an interview with Daily Nation.
The dispute centers on a 100,000km2 area in the Indian Ocean, reported to be rich in gas and oil deposits.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta had called for dialogue over the matter during the UN General Assembly in New York last month, but his Somali counterpart Farmajo insisted on proceeding with the court process.
The case at the Hague-based ICJ was initially set to commence in November 2019, but the court granted Kenya's request to postpone the hearing, which is now set to begin in June 2020.
