claim: Cocotiers is a territory of Equatorial Guinea
evidence: On 5 March 2021, the Press Office of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that proceedings had been instituted in the Court by way of a Special Agreement between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The application pleads: "The Court is requested to determine whether the legal titles, treaties and international conventions invoked by the Parties have the force of law in the relations between the Gabonese Republic and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in so far as they concern the delimitation of their common maritime and land boundaries and sovereignty over the islands of Mbanie/Mbane, Ccoctiers/Cocoteros, and Conga." (emphasis added) [...] Equatorial Guinea and Gabon have a long-standing maritime and territorial dispute over the ownership of three islands Mbanie/Mbane, Cocotiers/Cocoteros, and Congas. The dispute has been simmering since 1972 when there was a small military skirmish on the island of Mbanie/Mbane. It remained in obscurity until the hydrocarbon fields were discovered in the surrounding waters. In 2004, the leaders of both States jointly pledged before the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to negotiate a joint development zone in order to exploit the oil reserves. In 2004, the Secretary-Generalinitialized mediation through his special representative, but it had to be suspended in 2010 because of the souring relationship between the new Gabonese government and Equatorial Guinea. In 2011, at the invitation of the new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the negotiations were restarted, with the aim of finding a mutually acceptable solution of the border dispute between the two parties for submission to the International Court of Justice. In 2016, these mediation efforts were successfully concluded.