Somalia President Rejects Uhuru And AU’s Call On Dialogue

Somalia President Mohamed Farmaajo has rejected President Uhuru’s calls on dialogue over the disputed maritime boundary in the Indian ocean.

Both presidents were attending the 74^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that was taking place at the UN headquarters in New York City.

President Uhuru, during his fifteen-minute chance to highlight issues affecting his country, took the chance to call on Somalia to accept dialogue and maintain peace and good relations.

“I have always been a believer in dialogue. I believe dialogue is the most amicable way of solving disputes and finding a better solution. Only then shall we enhance our togetherness,” said Uhuru during his address.

Somalia President on his part took the chance to reject Kenya’s call on peaceful dialogue and maintained that the matter is in court and that his country will accept the court’s decision.

“Peaceful talks have not borne fruit since 2014 and we believe that the matter is in the best place. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) should be the ultimate decision-maker in the maritime dispute issue,” Said President Farmaajo.

He said that Somalia is pleased that the ICJ has jurisdiction to resolve the dispute after all other forms of negotiations had failed before.

Kenyan diplomats had initially written to the African Union (AU), telling the body to intervene and convince Somalia to agree to have an out of court solution to their problem but Somalia’s Foreign Affairs Minister had rejected the call in his letter to AU.

President Farmaajo, also amplified his minister’s letter during his UNGA speech, where he also had a good number of Somalia native audience, saying that Somalia will not accept AU’s call.

He said that AU had no capacity to intervene in a case that has already been taken up by the ICJ, to which he received an applause from the crowd.

Earlier before his speech, both Farmaajo and Uhuru had met Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also the AU chairman in a sideline meeting, which they said was the first step towards achieving normal relations between the two countries.

Sources close to the Somalia government, however, say that Farmaajo’s firm stand on resolving the matter in court was due to the pressure mounted on him by his countrymen and that will determine his re-election come 2021.

Farmaajo maintained that “we will still be very good friends with Kenya but the matter must be left in court.”

The final hearing of the case is scheduled to be heard in November 2019.