The government of Ghana has formally notified neighboring Togo that it will refer their maritime boundary dispute to international arbitration, officials said Friday.
In a statement, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Ghana’s minister for government communications, confirmed that Accra will seek a binding delimitation of the offshore boundary under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the global framework governing maritime disputes.
The decision follows eight years of bilateral negotiations that failed to produce an agreement. “This follows attempts at negotiating a boundary which have gone on for the past eight years but have not resulted in an agreed outcome,” the statement said.
Officials said the move is intended to prevent further escalation of incidents that have strained relations between state institutions in both countries. By pursuing arbitration, Ghana aims to secure a rules-based resolution while preserving what it described as the longstanding cordial ties between Accra and Lomé.
