A team of Cameroonian and Nigerian experts will next February begin delineating the unmarked land borders separating the neighbours, the United Nations Office for West Africa (Unowa) has said.The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in October 2002 that both nations should demarcate their land and maritime borders, which had been the cause of disputes between the West African neighbours for decades until they struck a UN-backed deal to settle the matter. A commission with members from both nations agreed at a UN-supported conference last Friday in the Nigerian capital Abuja to speed up the implementation of the ICJ ruling.The verdict was followed by the 2006 Green Tree Accord under which Nigeria recognised Cameroonian sovereignty over one part of the border, the Bakassi Peninsula.So far, over 1,845 kilometres out of the over 2,000-kilometre boundary have been marked by the Joint Technical Team, which will also carry on with pillar emplacement.The two countries agreed to delimit their maritime boundary in 2007, and the withdrawal and transfer of authority in the Lake Chad area, along the land border and in Bakassi Peninsula, was finalised in 2008.The demarcation of the land was the third component of the mandate of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission.Join separatistsThe Abuja meeting also stressed the importance of implementing the fourth component, which was addressing the needs of the population affected through confidence-building and cross border socio-economic projects.Nigeria set up a committee last Thursday to find a solution to the plight of Bakassi indigenes, who were resettled in Nigeria’s Cross River State. The people have been complaining that the government of Nigeria had abandoned them and that they found it hard getting an alternative livelihood to fishing.
