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The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has established a special chamber to hear a dispute between Ghana and Togo over the delimitation of their maritime boundary in the Gulf of Guinea, marking a major step in a case that follows years of unsuccessful bilateral negotiations.
In a press release issued on 12 June, the Hamburg-based tribunal said the chamber had been constituted to adjudicate the dispute after both countries agreed to transfer arbitral proceedings initiated by Ghana under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to a special chamber of the court.
The seven-member chamber will be presided over by ITLOS President Tomas Heidar of Iceland and includes Vice-President Neeru Chadha of India, alongside judges from Italy, South Korea and Poland. Ghana has nominated international law scholar Dapo Akande as judge ad hoc, while Togo has nominated Senegalese jurist Makane Moïse Mbengue.
The case has been entered as Case No. 36 on the tribunal’s docket.
Background
The development follows Ghana’s decision earlier this year to seek a legally binding settlement after eight years of negotiations with Togo failed to produce an agreement on the maritime boundary separating the two West African neighbours.
The dispute centres on overlapping claims in offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, an area believed to contain significant hydrocarbon resources and productive fishing grounds.
Efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically intensified after incidents in 2017 and 2018 when Togolese authorities halted Ghanaian seismic survey vessels operating near the disputed maritime zone. Togo argued the vessels were conducting activities within waters it claimed as part of its maritime jurisdiction.
The disagreement emerged shortly after Ghana secured a landmark victory against Côte d’Ivoire before a special chamber of ITLOS in 2017, which established the maritime boundary between the two countries and provided legal certainty over Ghana’s western offshore frontier.
Following the incidents with Togo, both countries established a Joint Maritime Boundary Technical Committee and held multiple rounds of negotiations. However, discussions failed to bridge differences over boundary methodology, baseline coordinates and the interpretation of hydrographic data.
In February 2026, Ghana formally notified Togo of its decision to pursue international arbitration under UNCLOS after concluding that bilateral negotiations had reached an impasse.
Under UNCLOS, neighbouring coastal states are required to seek equitable solutions when their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and continental shelf claims overlap. Where negotiations fail, the convention allows parties to submit disputes to arbitration or adjudication through international tribunals.
The establishment of the special chamber means the dispute will now move into a judicial phase, with both countries expected to submit legal arguments, hydrographic surveys, maritime charts and historical evidence supporting their respective claims.
The outcome will determine the legal maritime boundary between the two countries and clarify sovereign rights over offshore resources, including potential oil and gas reserves, fisheries and other economic activities in the disputed area.
The proceedings are also being closely watched across West Africa as a test of rules-based maritime governance in the Gulf of Guinea, where several coastal states are seeking to balance resource development, maritime security and regional cooperation.
For Ghana, the case represents another significant attempt to secure legal certainty over its maritime frontiers through international law, following its successful boundary delimitation case against Côte d’Ivoire nearly a decade ago.
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