Somalia MPs are now demanding compensation from some Western countries for “looting” the horn of Africa country’s water resources for the last 15 years.
The countries, the legislators said, have engaged in illegal fishing and dumping of toxic wastes on the Somali coast line.
“We want our country to be compensated for years of looting of our water resources,” Mr Ashareh, the leader of the delegation said.
As a result of these activities by the countries, they said, Somalis found ways of protecting their water resources “which gave birth to the pirates.”
The MPs welcomed Somalia’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar statement to reporters in Mogadishu on Wednesday, accusing some foreign ships of “illegal fishing and of dumping industrial waste into Somali waters.”
The minister said the illegal activities helped piracy in Somali coast by being a pretext to “unscrupulous individuals.”
Piracy is rife in the Somali coastal waters and in the Gulf of Aden where nearly 20 ships with nearly 250 crew members on board are being held hostage for ransom by pirates.
Several countries have deployed warships along the east Africa coastline to protect ships from hijackings.
Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for nearly the past two decades, does not have navy or a strong army to protect Somalia’s territorial waters from the rampant piracy, illegal fishing and the dumping of industrial waste by foreign ships.
Mr Omaar further defended a maritime agreement signed with Kenya last month that caused huge controversy in the war torn east African country.
The two governments last Month signed a memorandum of understanding on their maritime boundary which the two countries say will facilitate the presentation of both country’s submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf by May as required under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“This (Memorandum of Understanding) is not about the government giving other country a span of our land or sea. It is about Kenya and Somalia granting each other non-objection in respect of their submissions on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf to the Commission ( on the Limits of the Continental Shelf),” Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar, Somalia’s Foreign Minister told reporters in Mogadishu.
However, the maritime agreement between Somalia and its southern neighbour has caused an angry uproar in Somalia and is increasingly being seen by many including some officials within Somali government itself as being compromising the territorial integrity of Somalia and inadvertently ceding land to Kenya.
The deal is expected to be brought before Somalia parliament soon and government ministers would be questioned regarding the maritime agreement with Kenya.
Source: The Daily Nation
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