Cameroon, Nigeria Agree to End Decades-long Border Dispute
Soccer Football - Africa Cup of Nations 2019 - Round of 16 - Nigeria v Cameroon - Alexandria Stadium, Alexandria, Egypt - July 6, 2019 Nigeria's Odion Ighalo in action with Cameroon's Michael Ngadeu REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Nigeria and Cameroon have resolved they would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their decades-long disputed border case, a report by the Voice of America (VON) said at the weekend.
Rather, the two nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes.
The nations share about 2,100 kilometres (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast.
Chairperson of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission set up by the United Nations to solve the countries’ territorial disputes, Leonardo Santos Simao, said he was delighted the two countries decided to resolve their disputes without long and expensive processes at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The agreement to peacefully resolve border disputes before the end of 2025 was made at a two-day meeting of the Mixed Commission in Yaounde, VOA said, quoting Simao as describing it as a milestone.
The two countries agreed to visit disputed territories in Rumsiki and Tourou in northern Cameroon and Koche in eastern Nigeria before the end of 2024.
Nigerian Justice Minister, Lateef Fagbemi, who is the leader of the West African state’s delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, confirmed that the countries have agreed to complete the project within 12 months.
“It’s a consensus between Cameroon and Nigeria. By the end of 2025, this project should be concluded,” he said.
“We have so admirably and maturely handled the situation in such a way that there is hardly any dissent. We are satisfied with the outcome of the two-day meeting, and we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.
Cameroon and Nigeria said the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They added that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue.
The two states noted that they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages.
The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission was established in 2002 at the request of President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the then-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo to facilitate the implementation of an October 10, 2002, International Court of Justice ruling that ceded Bakassi, an oil-rich border peninsula, to Cameroon.
Nigeria initially rejected the verdict, with its senate arguing that the ruling, based on a colonial era agreement, was unfair and should be appealed. But Nigerian officials said the verdict should be respected.
Meanwhile, Xinhua, a Chinese news agency quoted a United Nations spokesperson as having hailed the agreement for a roadmap to a 2025 accord to peacefully resolve the border dispute.
“The extraordinary session of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission reached a milestone today (Thursday) toward the peaceful completion of the border demarcation,” said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
The commission was first established in 2002 by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the request of the leaders of Cameroon and Nigeria to address sovereignty claims over the Bakassi Peninsula.
Dujarric described the agreement as “an example that diplomacy takes time, but this is part of a peaceful resolution of conflict, and it is good news.”
