UN court backs Equatorial Guinea in Gabon dispute over islands in oil-rich waters

The United Nation’s top court has sided with Equatorial Guinea in a row with Gabon over three islands in potentially oil-rich waters.

The two Central African countries have been arguing over the isles – Conga, Mbanié and Cocoteros – since the early 1970s.

The islands are virtually uninhabited but are in a maritime zone thought to contain significant oil deposits.

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 central 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, Mbanié and Cocoteros were held by Spain, and then passed to its former colony Equatorial Guinea at independence in 1968.