Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have signed an agreement that closes the historic territorial dispute over the islands of Mbañe, Cocoteros, and Conga, following the ruling issued in May 2025 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main UN court responsible for resolving disputes between states, which ruled in favor of Malabo.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Equatorial Guinea, Simeon Oyono Esono Angue, and the President of the Constitutional Council of Gabon, Dieudonné Aba'a Owono, signed the document at an event held the day before at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, through which both parties commit to fully comply with the ICJ's resolution.
"The agreement reflects a shared commitment to dialogue, cooperation, good neighborliness, and the peaceful resolution of disputes, in the spirit of African unity," declared the President of the African Union, Mahmud Ali Yusuf, in a statement.
In similar terms, Owono has stated that the pact constitutes "an act of mutual trust and a firm political commitment to the preservation of peace in Central Africa." "In a continental context marked by multiple security challenges, this approach demonstrates that dialogue and cooperation remain the most effective tools for preventing tensions," he said.
For his part, the head of Equatorial Guinean diplomacy emphasized that the understanding allows "to demonstrate that neighboring states can comply with an international judicial decision with serenity, responsibility, and good faith, while maintaining absolute respect for both international and African institutions." "Africa is watching us. The world is watching us. Our peoples are watching us," he expressed.
The ICJ based its ruling on the Special Convention for the Delimitation of French and Spanish Possessions in West Africa, the coasts of the Sahara, and the Gulf of Guinea, signed in Paris on June 27, 1900. This instrument establishes the land boundary line between both states, which is taken as the initial reference for tracing the maritime border and separating their territorial waters, as the court specified.
The two countries had decided to submit the controversy to the ICJ and registered the case in March 2021. Malabo defended the validity of the Paris Treaty of 1900, while Gabon relied on the Bata Convention of 1974. Finally, the court determined that the Bata Convention "is not a treaty that establishes law in the" bilateral relations.
Gabon, however, has focused on the fact that, by recognizing the Franco-Spanish Convention of 1900 as the applicable definitive text, the land border ceases to follow the course of the Kyé River and is defined as a straight line, which implies that "several territories currently Equatoguinean in Ebebiyin and Mongomo will become Gabonese."