Tanzania is yet to respond to a December 2024 note from Malawi Government protesting against various activities Dodoma is under-taking on Lake Malawi, it has emerged.
In a written response on Friday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Mwayi McLloyd Polepole confirmed that Malawi is yet to receive feedback on the matter.
He said: “A comprehensive protest note was issued in December 2024. Tanzania is yet to formally respond to the note.”
The note followed another confidential diplomatic note dated February 2 2024 where Malawi faulted Tanzania for embark-ing on the upgrade and expansion of Mbamba Bay Port project on the lake, saying Lilongwe was not consulted and asked Dodoma to halt construction works.
However, Polepole said Malawi stands ready to engage in other forms of peaceful settlement of the issue available at international law should mediation be pronounced to have failed or otherwise proven futile.
He said the Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation (JPCC) of the two countries urged them to write the mediation team on the need to conclude the mediation.
Said Polepole: “Malawi Government maintains that the north-eastern shoreline is the boundary between Malawi and Tanzania with respect to the lake. This is supported by the Heligoland Treaty which has post-independence application.
“Moreover, the doctrine of uti possidetis juris, which provides that new sovereign States should retain their pre-independence bound-aries, was accepted by the African Union to maintain boundaries of States.”
He said Malawi in 2023 submitted its call to action letter to the chairperson of the mediation team who is former Mozambican Pres-ident Joaquim Chissano.
When contacted yesterday, Tanzania High Commission head of commission David Fupi refused to comment on the matter, saying: “I am chargé d’affaires for the mission for now, but I am not in a po-sition to comment on the same.”
There have been calls from Malawi Law Society, opposition political parties and experts asking government to show leadership in outlining measures being undertaken to protect the boundary over Lake Malawi, which Tanzania is redrawing.
Besides constructing Mbamba Bay Port on the disputed waters earlier last year, the Tanzanian government instructed teachers to use a map that depicts the border on Lake Malawi as running through the middle of its upper half, not along the shoreline.
Convention Tanzania bases its argument on the 1982 United Nations (UN) Convention on Law of the Sea that stipulates that in cases where na-tions are separated by water bodies, the boundary lies in the mid-dle of the water source.
