Hand-over of Bakassi peninsula still blocked

Nigeria has failed to agree on a new date for handing over the disputed Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon after refusing to withdraw from the potentially oil-rich territory by the original deadline of 15 September, the UN mediator in the border dispute has announced. The UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said the latest meeting of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission in Abuja on 21 and 22 October had simply referred the issue to the heads of state of the two countries and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “The issue of the modalities of withdrawal and transfer of authority in the Bakassi Peninsula as earlier agreed was discussed. After deliberation on this issue and as a result of divergence of views, the Mixed Commission decided to refer the matter to the heads of state of Cameroon and Nigeria and the Secretary General of the United Nations,” UNOWA said in a statement. The next meeting of the Mixed Commission, which has managed to peacefully supervise other border adjustments between the two countries, was set for 7 and 8 December in Yaounde. The mixed commission is chaired by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah. Nigeria currently occupies the Bakassi peninsula, a 1,000 square km finger of swampy forest that juts into the Gulf of Guinea. Nearby offshore waters on the Nigerian side contain large oil reserves which are already being developed, but the maritime frontier between Cameroon and Nigeria has yet to be demarcated, so a large zone of disputed ownership has yet to be fully explored. The Bakassi peninsula is home to several thousand farmers and fishermen, most of whom fervently support continued Nigerian ownership of the territory. President Olusegun Obasanjo reluctantly accepted an October 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice that awarded the territory to Cameroon. His government eventually agreed to withdraw Nigeria’s administration from Bakassi on 15 September. However, political opposition to the move within Nigeria led Obasanjo to backtrack on the commitment in August. Nigeria and Cameroon came to the brink of war over the Bakassi dispute in 1981and again in the 1990s, but Nigeria’s refusal to withdraw from the territory did not figure as an emotive issue in the campaign leading up to Cameroon’s 11 October presidential elections. President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for the past 22 years, was re-elected for a further seven-year term.