Malawi, Tanzania border dispute flares up again

Malawi TanzaniaNairobi. – A 50-year-old diplomatic row between Malawi and Tanzania over the ownership of resource-rich Lake Nyasa/Malawi has flared again.

Malawi is planning to take Tanzania to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Malawi claims the entire northern half of the lake while Tanzania says it owns half of the northern area. The southern half is shared between Malawi and Mozambique. Gas finds in the region have made the row more intense.

Dilemmas over borders are commonplace in Africa, a continent that was bequeathed 103 border disputes by its former colonial rulers in 1884 and 1885. A diplomatic row over maritime territory has seen Somalia take Kenya to the International Court of Justice.

A dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi Peninsula caused a lot of upheavals in the region. In the Great Lakes area, massive hydrocarbon finds in Lake Albert have caused unease. From the Gulf of Guinea to the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Rift valley, African maritime boundary disputes are expected to rise dramatically, potentially curbing ongoing and impending oil and gas explorations as countries seek to extend their continental shelf beyond the 200-mile economic exclusion zone. Over 90 billion barrels of oil have already been discovered, with potential for another 70-80 billion barrels.

It is urgent that Africa comes up with mechanisms that will address these disputes before they flare up and get out of hand, posing a threat to regional security.

Meanwhile, 50 years of dispute over territory brings to question the region’s diplomatic and dispute settling mechanisms.

Meanwhile, police in Malawi have launched a manhunt for unknown criminals who dug up bones of an albino, Stelia Bello, who died in 1984, a report said yesterday.

According to Malawi24, the bones were dug up last week on Monday in Byson village, Thyolo district.

The incident came to light after villagers noticed “something unusual” in the graveyard as they were passing by. They alerted the village headman, who immediately went to the graveyard and found out that Bello’s grave had been tampered with.

The deceased’s sister, Elida Bello, maintained that the body had been exhumed by unknown criminals.

No arrests had been made so far.

The incident occurred just a few months after police arrested a man who was found with human bones of an albino in the capital Lilongwe.

Amnesty International said last year that albinos in Malawi were being targeted in an “unprecedented wave of brutal attacks”.

The rights group blamed police for failing to tackle a scourge fuelled by ritual practices.

At least 18 albinos – who have white skin because of a hereditary condition that causes an absence of pigmentation – have been killed across Malawi since November 2014, the group said at the time. -African Executive/ News24.

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