Africa’s combined exclusive maritime zone concept

The report examines the Combined Exclusive Maritime Zone for Africa (CEMZA), a proposed 'maritime space without barriers' intended to enhance geostrategic, economic, and security benefits across the African Maritime Domain. While the author argues that CEMZA is compatible with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) if treated as a framework for cooperative governance rather than a replacement for national sovereignty, significant hurdles remain. These include the fact that less than half of Africa's coastal states have fully utilised UNCLOS to maximise their maritime zones, the existence of unresolved territorial and boundary disputes, and a historical gap between African Union norm-setting and actual treaty implementation. The report suggests that CEMZA should focus on joint enforcement jurisdiction and resource management, drawing on successful bilateral delimitation and joint-development examples from the continent.

• The CEMZA is envisioned as a 'maritime space without barriers' where African states would exercise joint or concurrent powers to facilitate economic, political, and security benefits while reducing transnational threats.
• The report argues that CEMZA is compatible with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) because the African Union's Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS) specifies that the zone is established 'without prejudice' to individual national maritime zones and must not conflict with the sovereignty of member states.
• A significant legal obstacle to CEMZA is that many African coastal states have not fully implemented UNCLOS benefits; specifically, less than half have maximised their permissible maritime zones, and some have not claimed a contiguous zone or legislated their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
• The implementation of CEMZA is complicated by existing territorial and boundary disputes, such as the pending maritime delimitation case between Kenya and Somalia at the International Court of Justice and Mauritius's claim over the Chagos Archipelago.
• The report identifies a systemic gap in the African Union's approach to integration, noting that there is a significant disparity between the number of treaties developed and those actually implemented, citing the long-unrealised Yamoussoukro Decision on open skies as a parallel.
• Successful precedents for cooperative maritime governance in Africa include the joint development of resources between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, and an agreement between Mauritius and Seychelles for the joint exercise of sovereign rights to explore the continental shelf.

APA

Surbun, V. (2021). Africa’s combined exclusive maritime zone concept. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-32.pdf

Chicago

Surbun, Vishal. Africa’s combined exclusive maritime zone concept. Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-32.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Surbun |first1=Vishal |title=Africa’s combined exclusive maritime zone concept |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=February 2021 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-32.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{surbun2021africas, author = {Surbun, Vishal}, title = {{Africa’s combined exclusive maritime zone concept}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-32.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }