evidence: Gabon and Equatorial Guinea faced off on Monday at the International Court of Justice, hoping to resolve a decades-old scrap over the sovereignty of three disputed islands in potentially oil-rich waters. The two West African nations have been squabbling over the 30-hectare (74-acre) island of Mbanie and two smaller low-lying islets, Cocotier and Conga, since the early 1970s. [...] Esono said that Gabon invaded the islands in 1972 and "has occupied them illegally ever since."