Mbanie Island

Mbanie Island (Spanish: Mbañe), also referred to as Mbanié, is an island of Equatorial Guinea in the Gulf of Guinea. The island is the largest in an archipelago containing the smaller islands of Conga and Cocoteros. It is 30 ha (74 acres) in area, and only sparsely populated with fishermen. Control of the island and the larger archipelago had been disputed between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon for decades, until the International Court of Justice ruled in 2025 the territory belonged to Equatorial Guinea.

Control of the island was first described in the Treaty of Paris in 1900, which gave control of the territory to Spanish Guinea. After becoming independent as Equatorial Guinea in 1968, the islands were soon after claimed by the neighboring and newly-independent Gabon, which took control of the island through military force four years later in 1972. The invasion defeated the small Equatorial Guinean force stationed on the island and replaced them with Gabonese ones, creating tension between the two nations. Before escalation continued, the Bata Convention in 1974 redrew the territory's borders in favor of Gabon, giving them the islands - however, the original agreement was subsequently lost, with only unsigned copies remaining.

After the discovery of oil around the islands in the early 2000s, tension between the two nations started again, prompting Gabon's Minister of National Defense and the President's son Ali Bongo to visit the island and reassert Gabon's claim, much to the resentment of Equatorial Guinea. Despite diplomatic efforts made by both nations presidents afterwards, no agreements were reached for years, possibly because of outside influence from French and American multinational oil producers favoring different outcomes.