The International Court of Justice has affirmed a decades-old treaty that granted Colombia three small islands in the Caribbean.
The court in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday said the sovereignty of the islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina was settled in the 1928 treaty between Colombia and Nicaragua.
Nicaragua had challenged the ownership to the islands, which lie some 220 kilometers off its coast in waters rich in fish and potential oil.
The U.N. court is now to take up the question of sovereignty over other areas in the archipelago that are not addressed in the treaty.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
