After 50 years, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon reconcile over border dispute
Ahmed Salem
Gabon and Equatorial Guinea signed an agreement on Tuesday ending a decades-long dispute over three small islands in potentially oil-rich waters, after the United Nations' highest court upheld Malabo Island.
The two West African nations have been disputing over the 30-hectare island of Mbane and two small, low-lying islands, Kokoteres and Konga, since the early 1970s.
A ruling that serves the interests of Equatorial Guinea
In May of last year, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which adjudicates disputes between states, ruled in favor of Equatorial Guinea. .
At a ceremony held at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Equatorial Guinea's Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono Angue and Gabon's Constitutional Council President Dieudonné Abba Ono signed the agreement obligating both countries to respect the International Court of Justice's decision.
The Equatorial Guinean minister said: “This matter has been definitively settled,” adding that the two countries must now “move forward.”.
Abba Ono said the agreement opened “a new era of cooperation with Equatorial Guinea.”.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, who also signed the agreement, welcomed the resolution of the border dispute, which he said had gone on for far too long.
Equatorial Guinea and Gabon: Contract dispute
The dispute dates back to 1900, when France and Spain, then colonial powers, signed a treaty in Paris defining the border between the two countries.
Gabon claimed that a subsequent treaty, the 1974 Bata Agreement, had cemented sovereignty over the islands in its favor.
The countries asked the International Court of Justice to decide which legal texts were valid – the Paris Treaty of 1900 or the Bata Convention of 1974.
The court ruled that the Bata Agreement did not constitute a legal title to the islands, which were under Spanish control and were transferred to Equatorial Guinea upon independence in 1968.
The islands themselves are small and almost uninhabited, but they are located in an area rich in oil and gas.
