botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

"steady progress had been made in filling up many minor blanks in our maps" and referred to
an interesting journey performed by another English traveller, F.C. Selous, in 1878:-
"He has also explored the Chobe river, one of the chief tributaries of the Zambezi, recently
shown by Major Serpa Pinto to be the lower course of the Cuando which descends from the
Benguelan highlands. The same river is the subject of a paper communicated by Dr. Benjamin
Bradshaw to the Society. Still further west an addition has been made to our knowledge of
Ovampo-land and the basin of the Okavango river, by Pere Duparquet of the Catholic
Mission." Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society, Vol.VII (1881), p.385 at p.391).7
362. All the descriptions cited above refer without hesitation to the Chobe as a wellestablished
river and they particularise its attributes as those, which, in the words of the
Namibian Memorial, "are commonly associated with rivers in popular understanding ... they
have identifiable sources, they run continuously downstream in an established course between
two readily discernible banks and they carry a significant volume of water all the year
round"(Namibian Memorial, p.19, para.55).
(ii) The River Chobe is a river independent of the River Zambezi.
(iii) The Chobe has a stable profile as a perennial mature river
363. Geomorphological and hydrological evidence show that the Chobe River is an
independent mature river with stable and visible banks. In his Opinion annexed to Chapter VII
of the Botswana Memorial Professor Sefe stated:-
"..the Chobe River..is one of three parallel linked rivers which rise in the Angolan Highlands.
On reaching the southwest north east fault zones of the Gwembe Trough and the Okavango
Grabben..the Chobe follows a rectilinear fault-controlled course north-eastwards to join the
Zambezi river at Kasane...The low energy status of the river at present which is reflected in
the existence of meanders, sand bars, and subsequent braiding(subdivision of the channel into
two or more branches flowing in the same direction) would be the result not only of low bed
slopes, but also drastic reductions in flow volumes as a result of past climatic
changes...Sidudu/Kasikili Island was initially a sand bar deposit..It is likely that at the time of
the establishment of the present Zambezi course about 26,000 to 40,000 years ago (Coates et
al, 1979, Thomas and Shaw, 1992) the south channel was the main channel..It was later
abandoned as a result of erosion of the sand ridges which delivered an excessive high
sediment load, and also as a result of downthrows along the Zambezi axis( about 10,000 to
26,000 years ago)which changed slope configuration.... Since the establishment of the north
channel, the south channel has become the largest of the backwater channels, although it still
carries some flow towards the Zambezi River.... While it is probable that further shifts will
occur in the geological future, it is certain that the present alignment of the Chobe River
represents a mature low energy system that is graded in the classic sense of the concept of
grade as described by Mackin (Schumm 1972)." (Botswana Memorial, Appendix to Chapter
VII,p.109 at pp.2-3)
364. The Chobe River originates from the Angola Highlands, and forms part of the Angola-
Zambia boundary. It is divided into different segments with different names depending on the
riparian countries; the name Rio Cuando being the Portuguese for River Cuando which
appears on most maps as the name of the river as it enters the Caprivi Strip where the name
changes to Linyanti to form the Namibia/Botswana boundary as defined by the Anglo-