Mbany’s small island is only 30 hectares, but it is at the heart of the territorial dispute between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The World Court held that it upheld the latter.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday determined that the islands of Mbany, Conga and Cocoteros off the coast of Gabon are legally part of Equatorial Guinea and will resolve decades of disputes among their West African neighbors.
The three small islands, virtually unmanned, but potentially oil- and gas-rich waters, have been ruled by Gabon since 1972 when the military forced Equatorial Guinea soldiers out of Mbany.
What was Equatorial Guinea’s claim?
But Equatorial Guinea has always rubbed discussions and requested an original copy of the treaty that Gabon could not produce.
“No one saw or heard of this anticipated treaty,” Domingo et Esonno, vice president of mines and hydrocarbons, told the ICJ judge in The Hague.
“In addition, the documents presented were not original, but merely unauthorized copies,” he added.
Philip Sands, the representative lawyer for Equatorial Guinea, dismissed the Treaty of Bata as “scrap of paper,” telling the World Court:
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What did the ICJ stipulate?
And on Monday the court agreed to it and held that the BATA treaty was not considered a treaty with law.
Instead, he ordered Gabon to acknowledge the treaty signed in Paris in 1900, splitting the French and Spanish colonial assets of the region that handed the island to Spain in 19900, and sovereignty moved to Equatorial Guinea in 1968 upon independence from Madrid.
“As far as the island’s sovereignty is concerned, the title of power in law is the title held by the Kingdom of Spain on October 12, 1968, and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea was successful,” the court concluded.
“Unfortunately, neither party can find the original document,” said Mbarantuo of Gabon, referring to the Bata Convention. “The archives were badly managed for a lot of things: unfavourable climates, lack of trained personnel, lack of technology.”
As a result of a friendly and diplomatic conflict between the two neighbors, the Gabonne army must leave the base at Mbany.
Reuters and Matt Ford, AFP
