Nigeria gives away 33 villages
2003-10-29 18:00
Abuja - Nigeria said on Wednesday it would surrender 33 border villages to its neighbour Cameroon, in a move which will raise hopes of a peaceful conclusion to a long-standing territorial dispute.
The decision concerns a 700 sq km patch of territory near Lake Chad, on Nigeria's northeastern border, which was awarded to Cameroon in a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.
Nigeria's acceptance of this portion of the controversial ruling has encouraged international mediators as the two countries prepare to discuss the much thornier issue of the potentially oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula.
"Nigeria will not be dragged into a meaningless and avoidable conflict with any of its neighbours," Nigerian Justice Minister Akin Olujinmi told the opening of the sixth meeting of the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission.
"I want to assure you, we shall continue to abide by our commitment to respect the judgment of the International Court of Justice," he said.
The commission was set up following an October 2002 ICJ ruling which awareded Cameroon ownership of Bakassi, a 1 000 sq km patch of swampland jutting into the Gulf of Guinea.
Oil fields
Several parcels of land along the countries' long land border were also to change hands - in both directions - under the ruling, and it is with these territories that the commission has begun its work.
But Nigeria has thus far refused to drop its claim to Bakassi, whose population of fishermen regard themselves as Nigerian and whose waters are thought to conceal potentially lucrative oil fields.
Both countries have agreed to settle the matter through the joint committee, which was set up under the aegis of the United Nations, and Wednesday's Nigerian concession was welcomed by UN mediators.
Cameroon took Nigeria to the ICJ in 1994 to adjudicate over the land and maritime border dispute. Large numbers of troops are stationed on both sides of the border and occasional skirmishes have been reported.
The Commission agreed last August that the first phased withdrawal (of Nigeria) be completed by the end of December 2003.
"We are actually looking into ways and modalities of ensuring that the people in these areas are catered for after the transfer of government by December 2003," Olujinmi said.
The head of the Nigerian team in the sub-commission on demarcation, Dahiru Bobbo, said that Wednesday's meeting would discuss Nigeria's plan to withdraw its administration, police and military from the Lake Chad area.
"The area of about 700 square kilometres of land around Lake Chad that was being claimed by Nigeria from time immemorial and also occupied by Nigeria with about 33 villages has been decided by the ICJ to belong to Cameroon and we have accepted it," Bobbo said.
The head of the Cameroonian delegation, Amadou Ali, said the meeting marked a major turning point.
Rise to the challenge
"Our two peoples can take credit for rising to the challenge, that of the primacy of law, dialogue and reason over conflict," he said.
The head of the UN team to the Commission, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, slammed the international community for failing to stump up financial support to help Nigeria and Cameroon avoid future conflict.
"The paradox is that if they had chosen to go to war, the international community would have been more ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on humanitarian relief and other operations," he said.
"I sometimes wonder whether Cameroon and Nigeria should stage a mock military confrontation in the presence of the media to attract funding for their peace efforts," Ould-Abdallah said.
The commission believes it needs $11.6m to fund technical demarcation work along the frontier, but has so far raised only $2.5m, contributed by Nigeria and Cameroon themselves.
The European Commission said last week it would grant $50 000 towards the project.