Togolese authorities responded to the press in Lomé on Friday, February 27, to the announcement of Ghana’s referral to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea regarding the dispute over maritime borders between the two neighboring West African countries. “This procedure is regulatory normal, and the Togolese party intends to respond with all the elements at our disposal,” said Dammipi Noupokou, Togo’s lead negotiator in the case.
In the presence of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Hodabalo Awate, and the President of Togo’s National Commission on Maritime Boundaries, the former Minister of Mines and Energy recalled the major steps in the case. He specified that the two parties, aware of the risks of escalation and committed to prioritizing a peaceful resolution of the dispute, began bilateral negotiations in June 2018 “following a series of maritime incidents that occurred between November 2016 and May 2018 in the maritime area not yet delimited between the two states.”
“This process is marked by the holding of 11 official working and negotiation meetings between June 2018 and December 2023. Held alternately in Lomé and Accra, these meetings allowed the two parties to present and examine their respective claims, to reach certain technical agreement points, notably concerning the starting point of the maritime border, the determination of the relevant baseline, and the reference maritime map, while highlighting points of persistent disagreement,” the minister stated.
Regarding the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) role in resolving this dispute, Togo’s lead negotiator informed that no process has been initiated in this regard. “We are waiting to see if ECOWAS will take the initiative to intervene in this dispute to try to achieve some conciliation between the two states,” he said, while specifying that the last bilateral meeting was held in December 2023.
“In the meantime, there have been some changes in the Ghanaian border commission. We were waiting for the new authorities to take office to resume exchanges, we were not informed, when we learned that the Ghanaian party preferred to go to court,” he regretted.
“The Togo maintains close and privileged historical, human, and economic ties with Ghana, which it intends to preserve and strengthen. Our common ambition must remain that of a stable, united, and resolutely development-oriented West African space in the best interest of the people of the sub-region,” said the Minister of Territorial Administration, Hodabalo Awate.
This case revives in public opinion the memories of a part of Togolese territory integrated into Ghana known as British Togo after the First World War. This territory had been annexed to the neighboring country by a referendum in 1956, before Ghana’s independence in 1957.
READ ALSO. In conflict with Togo over the Keta-East zone, Ghana refers the matter to international justice.
