Britain has sent a warship to its former colony Guyana to provide support in its conflict with Venezuela.

Britain has sent the Royal Navy's HMS Trent warship, which is currently docked in the Caribbean, to its former colony of Guyana to support the conflict with Venezuela.

A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense told reporters that the ship would arrive in Guyana by the end of the month.

"HMS Trent will visit regional ally and Commonwealth member Guyana later this month as part of a series of engagements in the region on an Atlantic patrol," he said.

HMS Trent has been on patrol in the Caribbean since early December to combat drug trafficking.

Es s e k ibo debate

Gaia -Essequibo is an area of 159,500 square kilometers west of the Essequibo River , and the dispute over its ownership between Venezuela and Gaia has been ongoing for more than 100 years. It covers more than two-thirds of Ghana , and 283,000 of the country's population of just over 800,000 live in this area. The region is mostly impenetrable scrubland, but has large reserves of oil, gold and copper.

The conflict began in 1831, after Venezuela became a sovereign state. The territory was under British control, and the Venezuelan government fought for its claim to the land. In the 1880s, after the discovery of gold in Esse c Ibo , the conflict between Venezuela and Great Britain increased.

During the time when Ghana was a British colony, according to the 1899 Boundary Arbitration, the Essekibo River was defined as the western border of Ghana .

Territorial disputes returned to the agenda in the 1960s . Venezuelan officials declared the 1899 decision "null and void" due to procedural errors. In 1966, Ghana gained independence from Great Britain and signed the Geneva Agreement with Britain and Venezuela to peacefully resolve the territorial dispute.

Even after decades, the conflict situation between the countries has not yet been resolved. In 2018, Ghana appealed to the International Court of Justice to resolve the issue once and for all . The UN International Court of Justice found Ghana 's claim against Venezuela on border demarcation based on the 1899 decision admissible.

However, Caracas believes that the conflict does not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and demands the demarcation of borders through direct negotiations with Ghana in accordance with the Geneva Agreements.

Against the background of these disagreements, the situation in the region is the discovery of oil fields with at least 10 billion barrels of oil in 2015 and ExxonMobile due to giving to the company. ExxonMobile has already announced the start of oil production in the third field (Payara) of the Stabroek block with an area of 26.8 thousand square meters. This will allow oil production in this block to increase to 620,000 barrels per day in 2024, and to 1.2 million barrels in 2027.

On December 3, 2023, a referendum on the ownership of the territory of Guyana-Essequibo was held in Venezuela. According to official data, the absolute majority of Venezuelans who participated in the referendum (about 95%) voted in favor of annexing part of the territory of the neighboring country. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared the region the country's 24th province and ordered the release of new maps of Venezuela.

It also gave mining companies in the area three months to stop operations or settle a settlement with the Venezuelan government.

On December 6, 2023, Venezuela announced the start of the mobilization and annexation of Western Guyana. On this day, a Guyana Defense Force Bell 412 helicopter crashed near the border with Venezuela. On December 7, 2023, the government of Guyana announced that 5 people (including a Brigadier General) were killed and 2 others were injured in a helicopter crash.