Equatorial Guinea-Gabon Border Dispute : UN Court Backs Malabo’s Ownership

The highest United Nation’s court has backed Equatorial Guinea in a row with Gabon over three islands. The two countries have been arguing over the potentially oil-rich waters of Conga, Mbanie and Cocoteros since the early 1970s. The islands are virtually uninhabited but are in a maritime zone thought to contain significant oil deposits. Meeting on May 19, 2025, at The Hague (Netherland), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Equatorial Guinea's claim based on a 1900 treaty dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets should be honoured. The court dismissed Gabon's argument that a more recent treaty, the 1974 Bata convention, had switched the islands' sovereignty in its favour. In a final and binding ruling, the ICJ said Conga, Mbanie and Cocoteros were held by Spain, and then passed to its former colony Equatorial Guinea at independence in 1968. Both countries pleaded their case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague during public hearings from September 30th to Friday October 4th, 2024. Gabon will now have to remove its soldiers from Mbanie, the largest of the islands.
In 1972, the Gabonese army drove Equatoguinean troops from Mbanie and established its own military presence there. Hostilities cooled until the early 2000s, when the prospect of oil in the Gulf of Guinea became apparent. In 2016, following yea...