East Africa: What Migingo, the World's Tiniest Disputed Island, Tells Us About International Law

analysis

For as far back as anyone could remember, Migingo was nothing more than an uninhabited pinprick on Lake Victoria. One of three small islands in the eastern waters that make up an island chain, Migingo is barely the size of half a football pitch. It measures about one-half acre or about two thousand square metres.

In 2001 resourceful fishermen began using Migingo as an offshore weigh station. The islet just happened to be more habitable than the steeply sloped adjoining islets. And because the fishermen earned three to four times in a day what shore-based fishermen could earn in a month, word soon spread that Migingo's geographic location made it ideally suitable to hunt the Nile perch.

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