US EditionICJ Backs E.Guinea in Spat with Gabon over Oil-Rich Islands
- On May 19, 2025, a ruling by the International Court of Justice determined that the oil-abundant islands of Mbanie, Conga, and Cocoteros are legally part of Equatorial Guinea, resolving a long-standing territorial conflict with Gabon.
- The dispute arose after Gabon forcibly took control of Mbanie in 1972 and later cited the 1974 Bata Convention as its basis, which Equatorial Guinea denied, demanding an original treaty copy that Gabon could not produce.
- The court determined that the 1900 Paris treaty, which allocated colonial territories between France and Spain and awarded the islands to Spain, served as the legitimate legal basis, and that control over the islands transferred to Equatorial Guinea when it gained independence from Spain in 1968.
- Equatorial Guinea's lawyer Philippe Sands dismissed the Bata Convention as “scraps of paper” and highlighted the reliance on an unauthenticated photocopy, while the court ruled the Bata Convention lacked legal force.
- The ruling requires Gabon to withdraw troops from Mbanie and leaves both neighbors to negotiate future relations amid shared economic reliance on declining oil reserves near the largely uninhabited islands.
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UN court backs Equatorial Guinea in disputed islands case with Gabon
The decision effectively hands the islands to Equatorial Guinea. The countries brought their dispute to The International Court of Justice in 2021, asking judges to determine what legal agreement settles the possession of the oil-rich islands
·Pointe-Noire, Congo
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Associated Press News+5 Reposted by 5 other sources
Equatorial Guinea prevails in dispute with neighboring Gabon over oil-rich islands
Judges at the top U.N. court have sided with the West African country of Equatorial Guinea in a fight with neighboring Gabon over the ownership of three largely uninhabited oil-rich islands.
·United States
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