Why Bakassi Remains an INTEGRAL PART OF Southern Cameroons: Commentary on the ICJ Ruling on Bakassi.
By Denis Atemnkeng
COMMENTARY ON THE ICJ RULING IN THE LAND AND MARITIME BOUNDARY BETWEEN NIGERIA AND CAMEROON, FOCUS ON THE BAKASSI PENINSULA
By Denis Atemnkeng
On 29 March 1994 the Government of the Republic of Cameroon filed in the Registry of the International Court of Justice an Application instituting proceedings against the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria concerning a dispute described as relating essentially to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula.
On October 10, 2002, the court delivered its ruling declaring the Bakassi peninsula to be “Cameroonian”.
The submissions of the parties with regard to sovereignty over the Bakassi peninsula are summarised in paragraphs 193 to 324 of the ICJ ruling. In Paragraph 193(b) the court cites the request of the Cameroon party thus: In its final submission Cameroon asks the Court to adjudge and declare: “that, in consequence, inter alia, sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula is… Cameroonian”
The submissions that follow from the Cameroon side to support this request are exclusively designed to show that the Bakassi Peninsula is located within the Southern Cameroons. In paragraph 210, we read: “Bakassi is said to have formed part of the area of the British Cameroons termed Southern Cameroons. This territorial definition is said to have been repeated in the trusteeship agreements which succeeded the mandates system after the Second World War…. Cameroon produces documentary evidence, British Orders in Council and maps which, it claims, evidence that Bakassi is consistently placed within the British Cameroons throughout this period. Cameroon points out that the map attached to the Report of the United Nations Plebiscite Commissioner shows that the Bakassi Peninsula formed part of the Victoria South West plebiscite district…. This would show that the peninsula was recognized by the United Nations as being a part of the Southern Cameroons.
Paragraph 213: “It is true that the Southern Cameroons Plebiscite Order in Council, 1960 makes no mention of any polling station bearing the name of a Bakassi village. Nor, however, does the Order in Council specifically exclude Bakassi from its scope. The Order simply refers to the Southern Cameroons as a whole. But at that time it was already clearly established that Bakassi formed part of the Southern Cameroons under British trusteeship.
Similarly, the evidence that was tendered to support this position are all Southern Cameroons maps and territorial and maritime boundary treaties.
