USA/CAMEROON: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon calls for succesful end to Nigeria-Cameroon border demarcation

Record ID: 235365

  • Title: USA/CAMEROON: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon calls for succesful end to Nigeria-Cameroon border demarcation
  • Date: 23rd November 2011
  • Summary: BAKASSI PENINSULA, CAMEROON (FILE - 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VIEW OF SHORE FROM MOVING BOAT PEOPLE CARRYING WATER CANS VARIOUS OF ARMED SOLDIER ON SHORE VARIOUS OF ARMED SOLDIERS
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cameroon, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: Cameroon Usa
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABHZ12ZX4OUPUA21J7KJ1BO77K
  • Story Text: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday (November 22) hosted a meeting with high-level delegations from Cameroon and Nigeria to review the progress of demarcation on the common border between the two countries that is expected to be complete by the end of next year.
    Ban called on both countries to bring their landmark agreement to a successful conclusion following the commitment of Cameroon and Nigeria to finalise the process.
    "I am confident that your two countries will continue to work together to allow both peoples to live in peace along the international dividing line. In order to ensure the successful completion of the exercise, I encourage you to maintain the same forward-looking approach that has helped you to overcome delicate legal and administrative obstacles," he said.
    A greater part of the dispute, the 3,000 sq km (1,200 sq miles) Bakassi peninsula, is located in the Gulf of Guinea and is mostly wetlands, rich in fish. Its offshore waters contain several oilfields and there are expectations of more to be discovered.
    Nigeria and Cameroon have fought over Bakassi since the 80s until an International Court of Justice (ICJ) landmark ruling gave the peninsula to Cameroon, based largely on a 1913 treaty between former colonial powers Britain and Germany.
    A UN-led joint commission was set up in 2002 to define the 1,600-km (1,000-mile) land boundary between the two countries following the ruling.
    Nigeria agreed to withdraw its troops from Bakassi in 2006 and leave the territory within Cameroon control.
    Withdrawal and transfer of authority in the Lake Chad area, along the land border and in Bakassi Peninsula was finalised between 2004 and 2008.
    Relative peace has been maintained in the area but attacks have been common.
    In 2008 a little-known armed Nigerian group launched two attacks on Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi and threatened more violence until the transfer is renegotiated.
    "Peace will continue to prevail between the two countries and in the Bakassi region specifically. Moreover, this very unique dispute settlement will stand forever for the two countries and the United Nations and serve as a model today and tomorrow from other states to settle their own disputes," said a Cameroonian representative, Maurice Kamto at the UN meeting.
    Officials from both countries have also appealed for more funds to help complete the demarcation.
    "With the support of the United Nations both countries have successfully turned an issue which could have been an issue of potential conflict to an opportunity of deepening historical bounds of brotherhood and to advance the social, political and economic well-being of our people to the admiration of the entire international community," said Nigeria's Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke.
    Cameroon and Nigeria have, to date, reached agreement on more than 1,700 km of an estimated total distance of 1,950 km of border between the countries.
    Nigeria's border with Cameroon, which runs from Lake Chad to the Gulf of Guinea, has never been established using modern surveying techniques and was charted in colonial times using landmarks such as rivers and trees.
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