The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that three virtually uninhabited islands Conga, Mbanié and Cocoteros belong to Equatorial Guinea, ending more than five decades of dispute with neighboring Gabon over a stretch of potentially oil-rich waters in Corisco Bay.
In its decision, delivered in May, the court upheld Equatorial Guinea’s claim that a 1900 convention between colonial powers France and Spain, dividing the continental territory of Río Muni (now Equatorial Guinea) from what is today Gabon, remains the only valid legal instrument. ICJ Vice-President Julia Sebutinde stated that the later “Beta Convention” cited by Gabon “is not a treaty having the force of law … and does not constitute a legal title.”
Gabon had argued that the 1974 Beta Convention replaced the colonial-era boundary and entitled it to the islands, but Equatorial Guinea has always challenged the document’s authenticity. Thirteen years of UN mediation culminated in a 2016 agreement to submit the matter to the ICJ.
Island dispute between two countries dates back to a 1900 Paris treaty between France and Spain. The contested area, believed to hold oil and gas reserves.
The islands themselves are little more than sandbanks, yet they sit in a maritime zone believed to contain significant hydrocarbon deposits. Both nations, substantial oil producers whose output has fallen in recent years because of under-investment and aging wells, are eager to tap any new reserves.
The dispute has occasionally flared into confrontation. In 1972, Gabonese troops expelled a small Equatorial Guinean detachment from Mbanié and have maintained a presence there ever since. Under the ICJ ruling, Gabon must now withdraw its soldiers. “Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have to live side by side; we cannot move away from each other,” Gabon’s presidential adviser Guy Rossatanga-Rignault said after the judgment. “Everyone has shown good will, and we want relations that are excellent today to be even better tomorrow.”
Analysts see the verdict as another test of Africa’s ability to resolve colonial-era border dilemmas peacefully. “This arbitration reinforces confidence in the ICJ at a time when some states still contemplate settling border issues by force,” Dr Alex Vines, head of Chatham House’s Africa Program, told the BBC. He compared the case to Nigeria and Cameroon’s earlier dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula, which was also settled by the court.
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While former colonial powers are not directly involved, their legacy remains: the principle of ‘uti possidetis’ obliges newly independent states to respect inherited frontiers, even when they split ethnic groups or leave resource-rich pockets in limbo. That colonial inheritance, combined with the desire to avoid redrawing Africa’s patchwork of borders, keeps international tribunals busy.
Equatorial Guinea’s reluctance to press its claim earlier partly reflected Gabon’s greater military capacity, and, historically, the protection of French forces stationed in Libreville. France has been scaling back its presence; by 1 July 2025 only about 100 troops will remain in Gabon, down from 1,000 a decade ago.
Attention now turns to implementation. Equatorial Guinea must determine whether exploitation of any oil beneath the islands is commercially viable, while Gabon’s orderly withdrawal will be watched as a bellwether for the region’s commitment to legal resolutions. For now, both governments have welcomed the judgment, signaling at least on paper, a rare diplomatic victory for peaceful dispute settlement in Central Africa.