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Bakassi: U.S. Commends Cameroon’s Cooperation
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published May 24th, 2010
- Washington File
- Unrated
ON the occasion of the 50th Independence Anniversary of Cameroon, Nigeria’s south eastern neighbour, the United States has commended Cameroon for its cooperation for the demarking of their borders.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a congratulatory message to the government and people of Cameroon last week said, “We commend Cameroon’s cooperation with Nigeria and the historic steps to demark the Cameroon-Nigeria border.”
According to Clinton, the United States remains committed to working with the Cameroonian Government as it seeks to strengthen democracy, governance, and rule of law.
The ties between the countries, she said, are also strengthened by our ongoing military and security cooperation.
Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon on June 12, 2006 signed an agreement settling a decades-old, sometimes violent, border dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, following intensive mediation by the then United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
Although most Nigerians were rather unenthusiastic about the development which saw the country ceding its oil-rich peninsula to another country, Anan was reported then as saying that
“The signing ceremony, which has brought us together, crowns a remarkable experiment in conflict prevention by Cameroon and Nigeria,” the UN scribe said.
“With today’s Agreement on the Bakassi Peninsula, a comprehensive resolution of the dispute is within our grasp,” the Secretary-General added at the ceremony at the Greentree estate in Manhasset outside New York. “The momentum achieved must be sustained.” Under the Agreement, transitional arrangements will be completed in two years on the peninsula, which was the last of four areas to be demarcated in accordance with the International Court of Justice decision.
Said Anan, “Our Agreement today is a great achievement in conflict prevention, which practically reflects its cost-effectiveness when compared to the alternative of conflict resolution,” Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said. “Its significance, therefore, goes much beyond Nigeria and Cameroon. It should represent a model for the resolution of similar conflicts in Africa and, I dare say, in the world at large.”
“Reason and wisdom have been our main guides,” Cameroon’s President Paul Biya added. “By signing the present Agreement, we have armed ourselves with an efficient instrument to implement the Court’s decision bringing a definitive conclusion to our border dispute.”
The agreement came some 12 years after Cameroon asked the International Court of Justice to rule on a dispute “relating essentially to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula”, which it claimed was in part under military occupation by Nigeria, and to determine the maritime boundary between the countries. Later, in 1994, Cameroon’s Government extended the case to a further dispute, relating to “the question of sovereignty over a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad”, which it claimed was also occupied by Nigeria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a congratulatory message to the government and people of Cameroon last week said, “We commend Cameroon’s cooperation with Nigeria and the historic steps to demark the Cameroon-Nigeria border.”
According to Clinton, the United States remains committed to working with the Cameroonian Government as it seeks to strengthen democracy, governance, and rule of law.
The ties between the countries, she said, are also strengthened by our ongoing military and security cooperation.
Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon on June 12, 2006 signed an agreement settling a decades-old, sometimes violent, border dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, following intensive mediation by the then United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
Although most Nigerians were rather unenthusiastic about the development which saw the country ceding its oil-rich peninsula to another country, Anan was reported then as saying that
“The signing ceremony, which has brought us together, crowns a remarkable experiment in conflict prevention by Cameroon and Nigeria,” the UN scribe said.
“With today’s Agreement on the Bakassi Peninsula, a comprehensive resolution of the dispute is within our grasp,” the Secretary-General added at the ceremony at the Greentree estate in Manhasset outside New York. “The momentum achieved must be sustained.” Under the Agreement, transitional arrangements will be completed in two years on the peninsula, which was the last of four areas to be demarcated in accordance with the International Court of Justice decision.
Said Anan, “Our Agreement today is a great achievement in conflict prevention, which practically reflects its cost-effectiveness when compared to the alternative of conflict resolution,” Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said. “Its significance, therefore, goes much beyond Nigeria and Cameroon. It should represent a model for the resolution of similar conflicts in Africa and, I dare say, in the world at large.”
“Reason and wisdom have been our main guides,” Cameroon’s President Paul Biya added. “By signing the present Agreement, we have armed ourselves with an efficient instrument to implement the Court’s decision bringing a definitive conclusion to our border dispute.”
The agreement came some 12 years after Cameroon asked the International Court of Justice to rule on a dispute “relating essentially to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula”, which it claimed was in part under military occupation by Nigeria, and to determine the maritime boundary between the countries. Later, in 1994, Cameroon’s Government extended the case to a further dispute, relating to “the question of sovereignty over a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad”, which it claimed was also occupied by Nigeria.
