THE HAGUE, April 21, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Judges at the UN's top court will
hand down a ruling Thursday in a bitter decades-long battle between Nicaragua
and Colombia over maritime borders.

The hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at 0800 GMT is
likely to be the final ruling in the legal wrangle between the two Latin
American countries, which has been raging since 2001.

The ICJ, which rules in disputes between countries, awarded Nicaragua a
swathe of disputed Caribbean sea territory extending 200 nautical miles (230
miles, 370 kilometres) from its coastline in 2012.

But the following year, Nicaragua lodged a fresh case accusing Colombia of
ignoring the ruling. It alleged Bogota had threatened to use force to back up
its claims in the oil and fish-rich region.

Nicaragua's lawyers also asked the ICJ to rule that Colombia should pay
compensation including for "the threat or use of force by the Colombian navy
against Nicaraguan fishing boats."

Colombia denied the accusations, saying its presence in the region was "due
to other imperatives" including the fight against drug trafficking and
international maritime rescue.

- A game of legal ping pong -

In a game of legal ping-pong, Bogota accused Managua of interfering with
indigenous fishing rights.

The loss of fishing grounds because of the ICJ's 2012 ruling particularly
affected the Raizal people, an English and Creole-speaking community who are
mainly descendants of slaves abducted from Africa, Colombia's lawyers said.

Although there are no land borders between Nicaragua, located in Central
America, and Colombia, in South America, diplomatic relations have been
strained for almost a century over disputed maritime limits.

Nicaragua finally took Colombia to the ICJ in 2001, and in 2012 it won
several thousand square kilometres of territory in the southwestern Caribbean
that had previously been Colombian.

Colombia, which was left with only seven islets, said at the time it would no
longer recognise the court's jurisdiction on border disputes.

Nicaragua then went back to the court in 2013 alleging violations of the
judgement by Colombia.

Judges at the ICJ ruled in 2016 that they had jurisdiction in the dispute,
brushing aside Colombian objections that it was not competent to hear the
cases.

Countries are obliged to implement judgements by the Hague-based ICJ, which
are final and cannot be appealed.

In rare situations where a country refuses, the matter can be referred to the
UN Security Council by the complaining country for further action.