Longstanding border disputes: Cameroon, Nigeria opt for out of court settlement.

The consensus to peacefully resolve the boundary issues was reached in Yaounde last week. This was during a parley of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, held Wednesday and Thursday in the nation’s capital. 

Representatives of both countries, speaking at the gathering, said the two nations would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their disputed border issues.

The two neighbouring nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes.

Cameroon and Nigeria share about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast.

The 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. He described the peace deal 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 Olasunkanmi 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," the Nigerian authority said.

Cameroon and Nigeria say the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They say that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue.

The two states say they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages.

The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, CNMC, 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. 

The mandate of the Mixed Commission covers areas including demarcation of the land boundary and delimitation of the maritime boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria.

It also involves the withdrawal of troops and transfer of authority in the Lake Chad area, along the land boundary and in the Bakassi Peninsula.
The commission was equally set up to address the situation of populations affected by the demarcation activities as well as the development of recommendations on confidence-building measures aiming at promoting peaceful cross-border cooperation.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3155 of Monday July 01, 2024