Frontiers in North Africa

(a) The Ghat region

Although the border section between Ghadames and Ghat has not been open to dispute, having been delimited by negotiations in 1914 between France and Italy to Italian satisfaction - even though this represented a massive concession by France, compared with the putative border for the Fezzan and Algeria in the 1899 convention (Lanne 1982; 246) - the section to the south of Ghat is not so clearly acceptable, however. The only document laying down the principles of delimitation for the section between Ghat and the tripoint between Algeria, Niger and Libya (Point 1010) is the same as that which defined the overall delimitation down to Toummo oasis, the September 12, 1919 exchange of notes between Italy and France (Brownlie 1979; 127-132). This, however, merely lays down that the border should follow the line of mountain peaks, always leaving to Italy direct communication links between Ghat (at that time a vital transit point on the trans-Saharan trade route) and Toummo (also a significant location on the route which eventually extended to Ghadames and Tripoli, as well as travelling eastwards towards Egypt).

The problem is that this ambiguous phrase has been open to various interpretations. Although the Algerian interpretation suggests that the line passes through Anai pass, other interpretations exclude this, thus providing Libya with a large increase in territory towards In Ezzane. In part these confusions arise from the fact that Italy did not occupy the territory it had been allotted until the late 1920s and early 1930s and also because the more detailed definition of the border region was made as the result of internal French decisions. The organisation of the Algerian Sahara was a constant source of friction between the civil and military authorities in Algeria, the one constantly attempting to extend its control at the expense of the other. This was particularly important in the northern region of the Sahara, where civil authority was dominant. In the south, however, military power ruled supreme and here the major concern was to delimit Algerian spheres of authority from those in Niger and Mali - at that time both part of Afrique equatoriale francaise (AEF) and Afrique occidentale francaise (AOF) administrative complex.

A crucial conference was held at Bilma between representatives from Algeria, the AEF and AOF in 1932 to resolve administrative issues between the three French colonies. This, following on from an earlier conference held in Niamy in 1909, discussed the frontier issue with Libya and it is from the interpretations of the local topology made at this meeting, that the conflicting border definitions now in vogue for the Ghat-Toummo section of Libya's western border derive. Even the reports of the conference are confused, since text and accompanying maps are in contradiction and the actual border line imposed seems to run in direct contradiction to the decisions of the conference itself. Subsequent meetings between representatives of the three colonies only further complicated the border delimitation issue. Although the existing arrangements for delimiting the border were confirmed by the 1955 treaty and the 1956 exchange of notes, no specific attention was paid to the confusion and thus the alignment of the actual border is still in dispute.