Maritime disputes and disputed seabed resources in the African continent

Less than half of the world’s maritime boundaries have been settled upon, but the numbers on the African continent are far lower than this average. The African Union first set 2010 and then 2017 as the deadline for African States to delimit and demarcate their land and maritime borders. Maritime boundary disputes in Africa have typically pre-dated the discovery of seabed resources, in particular oil and gas, but they have been intensified by a recent flurry in exploration activities off its coasts. The likelihood of offshore oil exploitation fuelled the territorial and maritime dispute between Eritrea and Yemen, eventually leading to its arbitration. The rich waters of the Red Sea on the eastern coast of Africa have enflamed both maritime and territorial boundary disputes between the coastal States of Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.