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Equatorial Guinea informs World Court Gabon's claim on islands is untenable

Equatorial Guinea asked judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday to reject Gabon's claim to several islands in possibly oilrich waters in the Gulf of Guinea.

The African neighbours, both substantial oil manufacturers, have asked the United Nations' top court to settle a dispute centring on the small island of Mbanié, less than a kilometre (about 1,000 yards) long, off the coast of Gabon.

Gabon's position is factually and lawfully untenable, said Equatorial Guinea's agent at the court, Domingo Mba Esono.

The dispute has been going on because 1972, when Gabon's army drove Equatorial Guinea soldiers from Mbanié. Gabon has given that set up its own military existence on the practically uninhabited island of just 74 acres (30 hectares).

But the disagreement lay inactive until the early 2000s, when the possibility of oil revived interest in the Gulf of Guinea.

In 2016, after years of mediation by the United Nations, the nations signed a contract that would eventually let the ICJ, likewise called the World Court, settle the conflict.

Equatorial Guinea bases its claim on the islands on a 1900 convention dividing up French and Spanish colonial possessions in West Africa.

Gabon, on the other hand, says the ICJ must base its judgment on another arrangement, from 1974. Equatorial Guinea states the document Gabon has actually offered as proof for the 1974 agreement is unsigned and not an initial.

Hearings will last a week. Gabon presents its case on Wednesday.

The court is expected to provide its final and binding ruling sometime next year.

(source: Reuters)