Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria fr

In March 1994, Cameroon filed a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning a dispute relating ‘essentially to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula’. In June 1994, Cameroon extended the subject of the dispute to include the question of sovereignty over Cameroonian territory in the area of Lake Chad and the frontier between Cameroon and Nigeria from Lake Chad to the sea. In 1999, the Court authorised an intervention by Guinea, which sought to protect its legal rights in the light of pending maritime boundary claims between Cameroon and Nigeria.

The ICJ delivered its judgment in the case on 10 October 2002. The Court decided that sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula lies with Cameroon and that the boundary is delimited by the Anglo-German agreement of 11 March 1913. The Court noted that the land boundary dispute ‘falls within an historical framework’ including partition by European powers in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, League of Nations mandates, UN Trusteeships and the independence of the two states. 

The Court also ruled on the 1690 km border between Lake Chad and the sea, the maritime boundary, and issues of state responsibility. The Court requested that both Nigeria and Cameroon withdraw their administration and their military and police forces from certain areas according to the judgment. Nigeria agreed to withdraw its troops from the Bakassi region in accordance with the 2002 judgment under a deal brokered by the United Nations.