Nigeria urges calm over Bakassi

Border disputes can hinder oil developments

Nigerian leaders have appealed for calm as they urge their countrymen to accept a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handing sovereignty of the disputed oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to its neighbour Cameroon.

A politician from the area bordering Bakassi said they were in pain and traumatised by the decision

But, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa told AFP news agency she would return to her constituency and urge restraint on local people.

However, Bakassi inhabitants and Nigerian troops guarding them voiced anger at the decision.

"This is the saddest day of my career," the Nigerian commander of forces stationed in Bakassi, Colonel Yahya Mohammed Dogo, told Reuters news agency.

Junior Justice Minister Musa Elayo, in a statement released by the presidency, said it was "inappropriate to talk of winners and losers".

It is apparent that there have been both gains and losses for each state

Musa Elayo, junior justice minister

"The judgement will resolve many outstanding matters between the two states and provide a way forward for both in areas which have caused difficulties in the past," he told AFP.

The two countries have clashed several times over the peninsula and Cameroon referred the dispute to The Hague in 1994.

The court based its decision on a 1917 document between former colonial powers Britain and Germany.

The ruling cannot be appealed against.

Land swapped

Although the court awarded Cameroon the key prize, it did give Nigeria some pockets of land along the border between the two countries.

Nigeria welcomed this and said the ruling did not damage the rights of its citizens living on Bakassi nor its control of existing oil reserves and production.

"Necessary consultations will be undertaken," said Mr Elayo.

"There will not be any requirement for Nigerian nationals to move from where they are living at present.

"The judgement will not have any effect on Nigeria's oil and gas reserves. It is apparent that there have been both gains and losses for each state. That is normal in a case that is as large and as complex as this."

Cameroon has hailed the court's decision as "a victory for international law".

"This conflict was ripe for resolution," Professor Ngole Ngole, the Minister for Special Duties at the presidency, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"As a Cameroonian, it feels great. We are that much prouder that we are Cameroonian," he said.

But the BBC's Geraldine Coughlan, in The Hague, says that handing over the peninsula could be embarrassing for Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo ahead of elections next year.

Nigerian troops in the peninsula were placed on high alert ahead of the decision, reported Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Francis Ngwa Niba, in Yaounde, says that the people in the Bakassi peninsula, mostly fishermen, want to belong to a country which will take care of them.

Long history

The dispute dates back more than 100 years, when the colonial powers in the region left the status of the area undecided after agreeing on the rest of the border between their colonies.

Equatorial Guinea intervened in the dispute in 1999, and asked the Court to protect its rights in the Gulf of Guinea.

The verdict ends eight years of legal battles between both countries, one of the longest in the history of the ICJ.

Last month the United Nations said the countries' presidents had agreed to respect the decision the ICJ would reach on the Bakassi Peninsula.

Mr Obasanjo and his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, also agreed at talks in Paris to discuss the demilitarisation of the peninsula.

Meeting in the presence of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan they agreed not to make inflammatory statements on the issue, and to consider the possibility of deploying international monitors.

The Bakassi peninsula is in itself a swampy strip of land with little value, but its ownership has implications for fishing and oil rights offshore.