Nigeria, Cameroon swap land

2004-07-13 12:46

Lagos - Nigeria and Cameroon were to take another step towards solving a longstanding border dispute on Tuesday with an exchange of territory on their long land border, the United Nations said.

In parallel ceremonies in two border areas, the Nigerian flag is to be hoisted over a community once controlled by Cameroon, and the Cameroonian banner will be raised in a formerly Nigerian settlement, the UN statement announced.

The handover will mark the second major land exchange on the inland frontier and open the way for talks to continue on the transfer of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, which remains the most controversial part of the deal.

The special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who is overseeing the work of the UN-sponsored Cameroon/Nigeria Mixed Commission, welcomed the latest exchange.

"It is the right decision at the right time and for the right reasons," he said. "The Nigerian presidency of African Union and the upcoming elections in Cameroon encourage an even more speedy settlement of this old dispute.

"It is time for African borders to become zones of cooperation and not of confrontation," he added.

The west African neighbours have long disputed the ownership of Bakassi, a strip of coastal swamp covering some 1 000 square kilometres that juts into the oil-rich waters of the Gulf of Guinea and is currently controlled by Nigeria.

In October 2002 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that the land in fact belonged to Cameroon.

The decision sparked fury in Nigeria, but President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has agreed to hand over the land peacefully under the auspices of the UN-backed joint commission, which was revived in the wake of the ICJ ruling.

"In the next few weeks, discussions on the modalities for the withdrawal of the Bakassi Peninsula will carry on," the UN statement said.

"Thereafter, the discussions will focus on the delimitation of the maritime border between the two countries," it added.

Tuesday's handover involves the small border towns of Bourha-Wango and Ndabakura, which will become Nigerian, and Narki, which will be taken over by Cameroon, the statement said.

- AFP