CALABAR, 7 August (IRIN): Inhabitants of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea in West Africa have declared independence days before Nigeria is due to cede (afstå) the area to Cameroon under a UN-backed settlement.
Residents waved the territorys new blue and white-striped flag at an independence ceremony called by the Bakassi Self Determination Movement on Sunday at Ekpot Abia, which is among land scheduled for handover by Nigeria to Cameroon from Saturday.
– The people have declared their own republic! said the groups leader, Tony Ene, to the crowd. Ene claims to speak for all the peninsulas estimated 150.000 – 300.000 population, though only a few hundred turned out for Sundays special ceremony.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, ruled in October 2002 that the strip of 700 sq km (kvadratkm) territory (lidt større end Bornholm) that juts into the Atlantic along the frontiers of both countries belonged to Cameroon.
The decision was based on a 1913 treaty between colonisers, Britain and Germany. Britain ruled Nigeria and Germany ruled Kameroun. In 1916 the Germans were thrown out of the area, which was divided between Britain (20 per cent) and France (80 per cent). Cameroun became independent in 1960.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjos government had angrily rejected the initial ruling before coming round to accept it following the mediation of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
After Annans last meeting with Obasanjo and his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya in June, it was announced that Nigeria would finally pull out its troops in 60 to 90 days.
Ownership of the peninsula, which is rich in oil and fish, brought the neighbours close to war in the 1980s. After Nigeria moved to fully occupy the disputed area in December 1994, Cameroon filed a case at the ICJ seeking to determine legal ownership.
Nigeria has offered to resettle Bakassi inhabitants who do not wish to live under Cameroonian sovereignty. But self-determination campaigners have rejected the offer to leave what they consider their ancestral lands and condemn Obasanjos government for agreeing to concede the territory.
DATELINE
2002 October – Ruling by International Court of Justice (ICJ) gives sovereignty of oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. But Nigeria, whose forces occupy the area, rejects the ruling.
2003 December – Nigeria hands over 32 villages to Cameroon as part of the 2002 ICJ border deal. In January 2004 both countries agree to mount joint border patrols.
2004 September – Nigeria fails to meet a deadline to hand over Bakassi.
2004 November – Paul Biya wins new seven-year term as president of Cameroun.
2006 June – Nigeria agrees to withdraw its troops from the Bakassi peninsula to settle its long-running border dispute with Cameroon. The breakthrough comes at a UN-mediated summit.
The Paris Club of major lending nations agrees to cancel almost all of Cameroons 3,5 billion US dollar debt.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews og BBC Online
