The Hague, Sept. 30, 2024 (Lusa) - Equatorial Guinea and Gabon on Monday began disputing the sovereignty of three small islands in potentially oil-rich waters at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which they are asking to settle a long-standing dispute.
Since the early 1970s, the two West African neighbours have been disputing the sovereignty of Mbanié, an island of around thirty hectares (0.3 km2), and two small low-lying islets, Cocotier and Conga, located around ten kilometres off the coast of Gabon.
Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, a member state of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), agreed in 2016 to submit the issue, which is poisoning bilateral relations, to the ICJ in The Hague (Netherlands), trusting that the court's judges can find an amicable solution.
The dispute dates back to 1900, when France and Spain, then colonial powers, signed a treaty in Paris that fixed the borders between the two countries.
Gabon argues that a subsequent treaty signed in 1974, the Bata Convention, gives it sovereignty over the islands. But Equatorial Guinea disputes the validity of this document.
Equatorial Guinea's deputy minister for Mines and Hydrocarbons, Domingo Mba Esono, told the court today that Gabonese officials suddenly brandished the treaty at a meeting between the two countries in 2003, taking the Equatorial Guinea delegation ‘completely by surprise’.
"None of them had seen or heard of this supposed agreement. What's more, the document presented was not the original, but just an unauthenticated photocopy," said Esono. "Since then, and this is more than 20 years ago, Gabon has not presented anything," he added.
The Equatorial Guinea delegation questioned the legitimacy of the document and insisted that Gabon present an original version.
The lawyer for the Equatorial Guinea-Bissau side, Philippe Sands, considered that the ICJ will enter "the world of implausibility and ridicule" if it gives credence to "pieces of paper".
"You are being asked to decide that a state can rely on a photocopy of a photocopy of a supposed document, the original of which cannot be found and has not been referred to or invoked for three decades," he said.
Esono also complained that Gabon had invaded the islands in 1972 and had been ‘illegally occupying them ever since’.
The two countries have asked the ICJ to decide which legal texts are valid, but not to decide specifically which nation holds sovereignty over the islands.
"We are confident that the Court's decision will help our countries resolve their outstanding sovereignty and border disputes, creating a lasting basis for our relations to flourish," Esono concluded.
Gabon will argue its case on Wednesday.
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