Politics

At audience with UN envoy: PM hails Nigeria’s decision to drop ICJ case, collaborate in border demarcation.

by Mboro Mesumbe Bwang
13 Mar 2024 21:21
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L-R: PM, Dion Ngute & Leonardo Santos Simoa after audience

The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, has saluted Nigeria’s decision to drop a complaint it intended to file at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, and collaborate in the demarcation of its border with Cameroon in certain localities.

Dion Ngute made the observation in a message on his X handle formerly Twitter on March 6. This was after an audience he granted the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General and Chairman of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, Leonardo Santos Simoa.

The PM said the two countries are in perfect agreement for the finalisation of “work, which until then, had been stymied in three areas. These are the villages of Rhumsiki and Kotcha in the Far North Region and Borne 8 in the Nord Region, a distance of 36 kilometers”.

While lauding the development as good news, he indicated that: “There is no need to have recourse to a further interpretation of certain provisions of the judgment of 10 October 2002 of International Court of Justice in order to complete the final demarcation of the common border”.

Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission Chairman, Leonardo Santos Simoa, talking to press after discussions

Santos Simoa told the PM during the audience that, Nigeria has agreed to continue the process for the border delineation as per the ICJ ruling.

He told reporters after the audience that: “We have received assurances from Nigeria to see the process through to completion”.

Santos Simoa said a blueprint was needed to for the successful completion of the operation.

He added that residents along the borders have identified additional areas, such as the Beka subdivision in the Faro Division of the North region.

To note is the fact that Cameroon and Nigeria’s dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula dates as far back as in the 1970s. Attempts were made in the past to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiations but between 1981 and 1996, the dispute almost escalated into a war.

Officials of UN envoy’s delegation, Prime Minister & his collaborators at end of audience

The case was then taken before the ICJ and the court had a hearing from March 2-11, 1998. In 2002, the ICJ ruled in favour of Cameroon’s sovereignty over Bakassi and clarified the border between the two countries. A mixed commission was established to implement the ICJ ruling.

Since then, the commission has been working to demarcate the 2,062km-long border between the two countries, extending from Lake Chad in the North to the Gulf of Guinea in the South.