World Court backs Equatorial Guinea in islands dispute with Gabon

Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Monday that Equatorial Guinea has a legal claim to several small islands in the potentially oil-rich waters in the Gulf of Guinea, settling a decades-long dispute with neighbouring Gabon.

In its final and binding ruling the ICJ, also known as the World Court, sided with Equatorial Guinea and said its claim on the islands based on a 1900 convention dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets in West Africa should be honoured.