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

Equatorial Guinea asked judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday to decline 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' leading court to settle a disagreement centring on the small island of Mbanié, less than a kilometre (about 1,000 lawns) long, off the coast of Gabon.

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

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

However the conflict lay inactive until the early 2000s, when the prospect 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 ultimately let the ICJ, likewise called the World Court, settle the disagreement.

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

Gabon, meanwhile, says the ICJ should base its judgment on another arrangement, from 1974. Equatorial Guinea says the file Gabon has actually offered as proof for the 1974 arrangement is anonymous and not an original.

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

The court is expected to offer its last and binding ruling at some point next year.

(source: Reuters)