Commission to discuss troop withdrawal from Bakassi

Withdrawal of troops and administrative personnel from the disputed Bakassi Peninsula was on top of the agenda as the fourth session of the joint Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission on the border wrangle between the two neighbours, got underway in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The commission was set up under the auspices of the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, after Nigeria rejected a ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in October 2002 awarding the disputed oil-rich territory to Cameroon. It has since met alternately in the Cameroon capital Yaounde and Abuja. Amadou Ali, head of the Cameroonian delegation, told the opening session on Tuesday that he accepted the suggestion of the Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar that the issue of withdrawal of troops and other personnel from disputed areas be discussed during the plenary sessions. The UN Secretary General's representative, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, said a trust fund to be set up through donor support would pay for the demarcation of the common border. Prior to that, he added, the two countries would share the administrative costs of the Mixed Commission estimated at US $2.5 million. Head of the Nigerian delegation, Bola Ajibola, called for more efforts to improve "confidence-building" between the two countries, such as joint economic ventures, cross border co-operation, and avoiding inflammatory statements. Nigeria's interest in the disputed peninsula, he said, was only in the well-being of its citizens living there and not in its resources. The Bakassi dispute reached a high point with troops from the two countries clashing occasionally in the peninsula during the early 1980s. In late 1993, Nigerian troops occupied most of Bakassi, prompting Cameroon to file a complaint at the ICJ in 1994. In its ruling, the ICJ said that the peninsula, which extends into the Gulf of Guinea between both countries, belonged to Cameroon. It based its decision on a 1913 pact between former colonial powers Germany and Britain. But the ruling - which was meant to end an eight-year legal battle between the two countries - was rejected by Nigeria on the grounds that the interests of its citizens who had lived in the peninsula for centuries, were not considered. In November 2002, Annan invited presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Paul Biya of Cameroon to a meeting in Geneva, where they agreed to seek a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Subsequently the Mixed Commission was set up. The importance of the 1,000 sq-km strip of swampy land has grown since the emergence of West Africa as one of the major oil producing zones in the world. International oil companies operate on both the Nigerian and Cameroonian sides of the peninsula.