ICJ gives Abuja more time in border case with Cameroon

Nigeria has been given another two months to file its counter-memorial in a land and maritime boundary dispute with Cameroon, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said.

The decision granting the extension was taken on 3 March and gives Nigeria until 31 May to present its case, despite Cameroon’s objections. In a letter to the Court dated 24 February, Cameroon said any extension of the deadline “would create a precedent which in future would encourage parties ... to make requests for interpretation or revision of judgements on preliminary objections”.

Cameroon filed an application for proceedings against Nigeria on 29 March 1994 over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, claimed by both countries. Cameroon asked the Court to determine the course of the maritime border between the two states as far as that frontier had not already been established by the Maroua Declaration signed by Cameroonian and Nigerian heads of state in 1975. Troops from the two countries are facing-off in the Bakassi area.

The ICJ said that in an additional application to the court filed on 6 June 1994, Cameroon extended the case to another dispute with Nigeria over “a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad”, which it said was occupied by Nigeria.