Equatorial Guinea asked judges at the International Court of Justice to reject Gabon’s claim to several islands in potentially oil-rich waters in the Gulf of Guinea.

The African neighbours, both significant oil producers, have asked the United Nations’ top court to settle a dispute centring on the tiny island of Mbanié, less than a kilometre long, off the coast of Gabon.

The conflict has been ongoing since 1972, when Gabon’s army drove Equatorial Guinea soldiers from Mbanié.

Equatorial Guinea bases its claim on the islands on a 1900 convention dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets in West Africa. Gabon, meanwhile, says the ICJ should base its judgment on another agreement from 1974.