Military

28 January 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will host talks at the end of this month between the leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon as part of continuing efforts to resolve a border dispute between the two countries, a UN spokesman announced today.

President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria will attend the 31 January summit at the UN headquarters complex in Geneva.

The meeting is being held in the framework of the work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, which is chaired by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, Ahmedu Ould-Abdallah.

”The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the progress achieved so far by the two countries, with the assistance of the United Nations, in the implementation of the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 10 October 2002 on the land and maritime boundary between both States, and to consider the remaining tasks within the mandate of the Mixed Commission,” the spokesman said in a statement.

The ICJ ruling dates back to 1994, when Cameroon asked the Court to rule on a dispute relating to sovereignty over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, which it claimed was in part under military occupation by Nigeria, and to determine the maritime boundary between the countries.

Later that year, Yaoundé extended the case to a further dispute relating to “the question of sovereignty over a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad,” which it claimed was also occupied by Nigeria.

The Court's 2002 ruling addressed the issue of sovereignty over the Peninsula and delineated the boundaries between Cameroon and Nigeria.

The 31 January summit is the third in a series of meetings between the Secretary-General and the two heads of State designed to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the border issues. The first one took place on 5 September 2002 in Paris, and the second was held on 15 November 2002 in Geneva.