Bakassi tension behind plans for refugee centre

Nigeria plans to set up a refugee centre in the southeastern city of Calabar in expectation that the border dispute with Cameroon might trigger a refugee crisis, a senior official in charge of refugees said on Saturday. Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Professor Ignatius Gabriel, told reporters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, that an estimated four million Nigerians were living and working in Cameroon. Many of these might want to return to Nigeria if the imminent ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the dispute between both countries over ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula had any unpleasant results, he added. "We anticipate that, very soon, we might be faced with having to repatriate Nigerians living in Cameroon after the world court judgement," Gabriel said. He said the Federal Commission for Refugees was already working with a presidential task force for the return of about 26,000 Nigerian herdsmen and their families who fled to Cameroon late last year and early this year, to escape ethnic clashes in Nigeria's northeast region. Nigeria shares a border more than 1,000 km long with Cameroon, its eastern neighbour. A dispute erupted between both countries in December 1993 over ownership of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, which juts into the Atlantic Ocean on their southern frontiers. Cameroon filed a complaint with the ICJ in 1994, seeking a resolution not only of the Bakassi dispute but also of counter claims in the Lake Chad area in the north. Both countries subsequently presented their arguments and hearings were concluded early this year. A ruling is expected before the end of the year.