Published Paper Details:

The scattered islands of the Indian Ocean are small Malagasy islands located off Madagascar administered by France for over a century, they are now integrated within the French Southern and Antarctic Territories. There are five of them: Europa Island, Bassas-da-India Island, Juan-de-Nova Island, the Glorious Islands, made up of Grande Glorieuse Island and Lys Island, and finally Tromelin Island, the only one located outside the Mozambique Channel and they are called "ocean sanctuaries of primitive nature", with a remarkable terrestrial and marine biological heritage. A bundle of evidence shows that the islets claimed by the successive governments of Madagascar from 1972 were Malagasy state territories and more precisely dependencies of the Sovereign Kingdom of Madagascar until its annexation by France, August 6 1896. Sovereignty over the Scattered Islands has poisoned Franco-Malagasy relations since the independence of Madagascar on June 26, 1960, the date when France granted it independence. With independence, French sovereignty was challenged by Madagascar, Mauritius and the Comoros. These claims, which have been attenuated for a number of years, have been gaining momentum recently, presumably for economic reasons. The Exclusive Economic Zones (ZEE) granted by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in fact give hope for significant hydrocarbon resources in the Mozambique Channel.