Annan invites leaders for talks on Bakassi

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited the presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon to discuss the follow-up to a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on their dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula. "The Secretary-General has remained in contact with the Presidents of Cameroon and Nigeria following their meeting in Paris on 5 September 2002 and subsequent to the judgment delivered by the International Court of Justice on 10 October 2002 on the border dispute," Annan's spokesman said on Friday. "The Secretary-General has reiterated his readiness and that of the United Nations to assist the two countries in the follow-up to the court's decision and in establishing confidence between them, as agreed during their meeting in Paris. To that end, he has invited the Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon to meet him again in the near future," the spokesman added. In its judgment, ICJ awarded sovereignty rights over the oil-rich peninsula to Cameroon. Citing two documents - a 1913 agreement between Germany and the United Kingdom and the Thomson-Marchland Declaration of 1929-1930 - it directed Nigeria to withdraw "expeditiously and without condition" its forces from the land boundary which according to the ruling, fell within the sovereignty of Cameroon. However Nigeria said on 24 October that the judgment did not consider "fundamental facts" about the Nigerian inhabitants of the territory whose "ancestral homes" the ICJ had now adjudged to be in Cameroonian territory. For other IRIN stories on the Bakassi issue see: WEST AFRICA: Abuja ready to discuss border dispute - Obasanjo CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Focus on Nigeria's response to ICJ ruling on Bakassi Peninsula CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Government ambiguous on Bakassi ruling CAMEROON-NIGERIA: World Court rules for Cameroon in Bakassi row CAMEROON-NIGERIA: ICJ to deliver Bakassi judgment CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Dormant treaties to be revisited CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Obasanjo, Biya to abide by ICJ border decision