Equatorial Guinea–Gabon border

Paris, 1900

France and Spain set out the limits of their possessions on the Gulf of Guinea in a convention signed in Paris on 27 June 1900. Gabon inherited France’s title at independence in 1960 and Equatorial Guinea Spain’s in 1968.^[1]

Equatorial Guinea held Mbanié, a 30-hectare island, until 1972, when Gabon took it in a military skirmish. The dispute over it and the islets of Cocotiers and Conga flared again when oil was found in coastal waters; both economies depend heavily on oil.^[3][2]

The Bata Convention

Gabon argued that a 1974 document, the Bata Convention, had settled the islands in its favour. Equatorial Guinea contested it, and Gabon did not produce an original copy for the court.^[3][2] After years of failed diplomacy, the two countries put the question to the International Court of Justice by special agreement in March 2021.^[1][3]

On 19 May 2025 the court found, by 14 votes to 1, that the Bata Convention was not a treaty in force between them. It ruled unanimously that the land boundary rests on the 1900 convention and the colonial titles, and by 13 votes to 2 that the title to the islands is the one Spain held in 1968, to which Equatorial Guinea succeeded. The sea boundary, it said, starts from the end of the 1900 land line and is governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.^[1]

On 28 July 2026, at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, the two countries signed an accord committing to respect the ruling. Equatorial Guinea’s foreign minister said the matter had been settled once and for all; Gabon’s signatory spoke of a new era of cooperation.^[2]

“This matter has been settled once and for all”^[2]