Kenya announced to not take part in proceedings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its maritime border dispute with Somalia.

Context

Kenya announced to not take part in proceedings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its maritime border dispute with Somalia.

 What is the dispute?

• Point of Disagreement: The main point of disagreement between the two neighbors is the direction in which their maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean should extend.
• Somalia’s stand: It says that the sea border should be an extension of the same direction in which their land border runs as it approaches the Indian Ocean, i.e. towards the southeast.
• Kenya’s stand: Kenya, on the other hand, argues that the territorial southeast border should take a 45-degree turn as it reaches the sea, and then run in a latitudinal direction, i.e. parallel to the equator. Such an arrangement would be advantageous for Kenya, whose coastline of 536 km is more than 6 times smaller than Somalia’s (3,333 km).
  

Why is this area important?

• The triangular area thus created by the dispute is around 1.6 lakh sq km large.
• boasts of rich marine reserves
• It is also believed to have oil and gas deposits